Beam: Reprise
by NinjaMoleRat
Summary: A remake of the original BEAM, this story follows four Huntsmen/Huntress in training at Beacon Academy. All sorts of obstacles, personal or otherwise, will test their bonds as a team and as friends. Rated T for mild rude language and violence.
1. Chapter 1- B

/-/ Liam /-/

I walked through the woods, breaking twigs and crunching fallen leaves as I made my way to the target spot. Emma, who was right behind me, made a point of constantly reminding me that we should be quiet as we made our way to the creepy looking candy house, standing on the sort of Cliffside near it to get a good view. I mean, who even has time to build a whole house out of _actual_ candy, and in the forest no less? I guess in the long run; it didn't end up mattering. I pulled Titan's Razor off my back, cocking it as I started on my way up to it before Emma stopped me.

"Hold on." She placed her hand on my shoulder, "We shouldn't just walk right up to her doorstep like that. We should figure out a better approach."

She was actually kind of right. The woman in this house was unpredictable at best and really dangerous at worst. But I had a few ideas. "Don't worry about it," I started that way again, on my way to the front, "This _is_ a better approach." She groaned, begrudgingly following me to the door.

We positioned ourselves at the sides of the graham cracker door. I squeezed my rifle in my hands, preparing myself. I nodded to Emma; she nodded back. She pulled out her Guan Dao- Scholar's Boon- and loaded a cartridge of Lightning Dust into the bottom, then some Fire Dust behind it. I backed up, now standing in front of the door with my body low. She went around to a sugar glass window and shot a blindingly bright flash of Fire and Lightning in, followed closely by me kicking the door in.

I aimed my rifle around, and this place was suddenly a lot less cheery. The outside was candy or at least looked the part, but the inside was all old, rotted looking wood, even the sugar glass windows looking dirty and stained. There was a rusty cage in one of the corners and, my God, it was littered with human bones, and the walls were stained with visceral blood splatters. There was a furnace too, a pretty old looking one, at that. Next to it was what looked like a pile of black, oily rags, maybe to start a fire with. But there was some God-awful screeching coming from the cloth pile, so I took a few steps forward, keeping my rifle trained on it.

Turns out, that heap of black rags could float. It turned to face me, and I shouldn't have been that shocked to see it wasn't actually a person we were dealing with. It was a Grimm, like one I've never seen before in my whole life. It had a mask with a long beak on it, like those bird masks doctors wore during the plagues. Its arms were long and lanky with claws as long as my fingers and looking as sharp as my sword, the arms themselves longer than its roundish body that looked like a wad of black wraps. It shrieked at us, and it turned out it could move pretty quickly.

I raised my sword as fast as I could, blocking a furious series of swipes from its razor-sharp claws. I pushed it back, not bothering to aim as I shot at it from the hip. Three of my shots flew through it, but I actually couldn't tell if that hurt it or not. It swiped at me again, hitting me across the cheek. The cuts burned like its claws were heated knives slicing at me, just for my Aura to protect me. I fell to the dirty ground, pulling my rifle up to shoot at it some more. It backed up, finally telling me that getting shot at least hurts for it, and it wants to avoid it.

Emma came up at it from behind with her Guan Dao, thrusting with it and stabbing into it with her blade, which came out the other side. She flung it back into the furnace as it shrieked before slamming the iron grate on it shut to trap it. If she doubted it would turn on, I certainly understood. She pointed her Guan Dao at it, spewing a cone of fire from the nozzle next to the blade into the furnace. The thing burned up quickly, screaming for what felt like ages before it finally died.

Emma walked over to me, helping me up off the ground. "Still like your plan?" She raised an eyebrow at me.

"Well, we're alive, aren't we?" I wiped my cheek, the grime from the floor smearing against my nice white shirt. I looked into the furnace, expecting it to jump out at us, but was actually pleasantly surprised. The inside of the furnace shined brightly, and I opened it up to see what was going on. Low and behold, on top of a pile of ash sat a whole stash of white, shiny pearls, along with some other valuable looking stones. I picked up one, looking at it to see if it was real, not that I could tell. "Ain't that a bitch...?"

/-/

A river stopped us next, the water reaching for far enough to make the opposite shore a far sight. The water seemed pretty deep, and I could see the shadows of something that was swimming through it; probably a Devil Fish or God damn Cthulhu. That'd be typical.

There was a boat nearby on the shore, with a Faunus lying down inside it. He had white feathers on his arms and presumably the rest of his body. He had a straw hat with a red band around it, and a brown vest with a green undershirt underneath. His pants stopped in the middle of his calves, and he wore shoddy brown sandals on his filthy, dirt covered feet.

He lay back in his boat with his hat in his face, snoring like an Ursa. I rocked the boat with my foot, shaking him awake with a startle. "Oh!" He stood up, "Hey there! You need a ride across?"

Emma kept her eyes on the woods behind us, waiting for the next Grimm to jump out. "Yeah," I nodded to him, "We do. Any way you could help out?"

"For some Lien, I'll do anything I can, my man." He grinned a shit-eating, greedy grin. Of course, he was going to try and squeeze us for some cash, the people in places like that tended to do that sort of thing. Plenty of locals were looking for nothing more than some protection of course, but others liked to take advantage of the high Grimm count, taxing people every step of the way for security or services. The scum of the earth, I swear...

"Fine," I took a few of the pearls out of my pocket, planting them in his hands. "Will that be enough?"

"Almost..." He started eyeing Emma, "I can think of something _else_ you could maybe pay with. Maybe you let me have some private time with her, save you the money-"

I grabbed his collar, stepping into his boat after him and forcefully shoving him back near the nose of the makeshift ferry. I precariously leaned him toward the edge of the vessel, his eyes widened at me in shock and horror as he was currently just a slightly slacked grip away from being Devil Fish food.

"I could row this boat myself, got it?" I glared at him, "The only reason I'm paying you is that I would prefer to get out of this without any blood on my hands. But I swear to _God_ if you talk about her like that, you're a dead man." I threw him back into the boat, wiping my hands of the filth that was on his vest, and he immediately got to the ores.

"A-Alright!" He panicked, "B-But this thing can only carry one of you at a time. I-It's not a very sturdy boat, you see..."

"Fine." I stepped out of the boat. "Em, you cross first." She nodded, and I looked back at the ferryman. "I'll be watching you." He nodded quickly, and Em sat in the seat across from him, and he started rowing.

Suddenly, there was a loud, familiar growling in the brush behind me. I didn't bother to count all the Beowulves that I saw when I turned to look, but there was also an Ursa of considerable size. Not much variety, just your average Grimm pack. Good thing too, I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to handle it if there was a Nevermore, or God forbid, a Goliath. I suppose in retrospect that maybe it wasn't the best idea to scare the Faunus like that, knowing that negative emotions attract Grimm like moths to a flame, but I don't regret it to this day.

I took a knee, putting the closest Beowulf in my sights and pulling the trigger. A series of 7.62x39 bullets flew into it, turning it religious (or hole-y, if you will) before setting my front sight away from the one I just killed and onto the next one. They all were charging after me now, so I made it a point to be quick about gunning down each one. The Ursa would be more difficult because they take more shots to put down, but that practically goes without saying. I was out of ammo in my current magazine after a few more Beowulves, and with them on top of me now, it was just me, my sword, and the remaining Ursa and four Beowulves.

If there were ever a good time for my Semblance to decide to work, that surely would have been it. Aura Manipulation is cool and all, but it's not so good when it only occasionally lets you tear your enemies down. I supposed I would have to deal without it like I've done every other time.

I stood my ground, not being stupid enough to charge into them. I reared my sword back, ready to give a hefty swing to whatever decided to come at me first. I have to say though; I'm still glad that Em spat some fire from Scholar's Boon, or I'd be a goner. The flames erupted between them and me after my sister fired balls of flame over the river like a mortar, creating a beautiful wall that kept the Ursa at a bit of distance, as well as a couple of the Beowulves.

The other two of them decided to use their heads and go around the wall, coming up on my flanks. I hopped back away from the swipe of one's claw, countering with my sword. It raised its arm up to defend itself, which I gladly hacked off in the very same motion as its head, severing it from its torso with a hideous growl coming from it before it started to fizzle.

The other one was a bit faster, making me have to block instead of dodge. It's claw planted on the side of my blade, which I tossed to the side so I could move up behind it, slicing it horizontally across into two uneven halves. Beowulves were generally easy to deal with, thankfully for me, but this Ursa would be a whole other story, not to mention the other two lackeys.

The bear monster braved the flames, charging through them with some new burns and scorch marks right at me. I rolled to the side, instinctively slicing another Beowulf's head in half when it came at me. The Ursa came back with its big claw, batting my sword to the side when I tried to block, putting me in a spin as I held onto the handle, not wanting to drop my weapon and get myself killed.

When I stopped spinning, the last of the Beowulves swiped at me, hitting me across the chest. I sure as hell wasn't going to fall flat on my back, so I rolled when I hit the ground. It came at me again, and I drove my sword up through its head, cutting it down across its torso when I pulled it out.

Now it was just the Ursa and me. It lunged at me to bite, and I went around the side of it to avoid and open an opportunity to slash it across the front, giving it a deep gash. It growled or roared, or whatever a bear does and turned around quickly to smack the hell out of me with its claw. That did a good job of knocking me to the ground, and I could tell my Aura was running out quickly based on the fact that that claw hurt a lot more than usual, which meant I was going to start bleeding soon, and that'd be bad.

Emma kept up the support, shooting a bolt of lightning at the Ursa, hitting it square in the side and knocking it over long enough for me to put some distance between me and it. I loaded a new magazine of hollow points into my rifle, cocking it and taking aim at the Grimm. I shot probably a quarter of my mag into it before it started to look like it was hurting from it. Getting a little impatient, ambling toward it with a slight limp, I unloaded my whole rest of the mag into its body and head until it keeled over and died, fizzling into black smoke.

The boat came back, the side of the ferryman's face marked by a red handprint. Emma, who was waiting for me on the opposite side where there thankfully wasn't any Grimm to speak of, must have smacked him in the face after he tried something stupid. I briefly considered killing him, but he unmistakably learned his lesson already.

I hopped onto the boat right when three more Beowulves came sprinting out of the bushes, and thank God he was so quick to start paddling away. Just to make sure they don't try to swim at us or anything, I kept up the heat, unleashing the trusty old "Spray and Pray" method. Another one went down, and the other two stopped at the edge of the river. I assume that's because the Devil Fish or whatever was in there was fierce enough to keep them away from me; I've heard before that Beowulves can swim with no problem if it meant getting a human to snack on.

Thanks to me only bringing three mags, I was nearly out of ammo with just about a fourth of a clip left. The duck took me to the other side of the river, and I hopped off, feeling pretty tired after all those wolves. I didn't say goodbye as we walked along on our way to the town, and Emma shared my sentiment or lack thereof at least. It'd still be an hour or two before we made it there, but I was sure pretty sure we could go it without encountering anything else.

I was sorely mistaken.

 **/-/**


	2. Chapter 2- E

/-/ Emma /-/

With that river behind us, we kept on our way to the village, following the path once we found it through all the dense shrubbery. If I'm sincere, I was pretty worried about Liam back there, fighting off those Grimm while I crossed with that creepy duck guy. As capable as he is, and as proficient in combat as the two of us were, I still worried about him. We had Manny to train us, sure, but I always wondered if that was enough to keep us alive with all the mercenary work we've been doing for this past couple of years. In the long run, I guess it didn't matter, but back then I worried about that stuff a lot, maybe a little more than I should have.

"Hey, Em," Liam turned his head back as we walked down the path, "Do you still have the map? I want to make sure we're on the right track here."

"Yeah, right here." I reached into my satchel, pulling out the rolled up paper and opening it to see where we were. The river was still behind us to the west, and the town was just a mile or so north now. I relayed the information to him, and we changed direction accordingly.

About half an hour later, we came into a clearing with a pond near the middle. We saw a few little forest creatures, each of them frolicking around, doing what animals do I guess. It was a very peaceful, serene scene with a bright blue sky and water so crystal clear that I could see to the bottom of it with no difficulty at all. Birds chirped from the distant treeline, and slight rustles could be heard from what we presumed to be more animals that we couldn't see.

"Ugh..." We heard a groan behind the rocks on the shore of the pond, it sounded like a man, and he moaned like he must have been in pain. Liam drew his weapon while we closed in, each going around one side.

When I got a view of what was there, I saw a man clutching his chest, his breaths shallow and rapid. He wore a dirty green button up shirt with some baggy brown pants that cut off at the knees, and a full head of salt and pepper, swept-back hair and a goatee. He looked like a villager or something to me, and after some quiet deliberation, we approached him.

Liam put his rifle on his back, crouching down next to him. "Are you alright?" The man opened his eyes weakly, looking at him with a wince. He was obviously in a lot of pain, judging by the way he moved slowly and held on tightly to his chest. "Move your hand; I'll take a look-"

"N-No...!" he groaned, "I-I'll make it... I-I just need... ah..."

"Don't be an idiot; we can help you." Liam grabbed the man's wrist, moving his hand away slowly. He looked for just a moment before his eyes widened and he drew his rifle, pointing it at the man, "You son of a bitch!" I didn't even have enough time to react before we heard somebody else.

"We're made! Get them!" Three more men started popping up, either out of the tall grass and reeds from around the pond or out of other hiding places, like the nearby tree line. As quickly as I could, I drew Scholar's Boon and counted two swords among them, and one rifle.

"Raiders!" Liam wasted no time opening fire on them, making them duck down for cover. The one with the rifle fired from his shelter in the greenery, showing it was a semi-automatic rifle, only firing one shot at a time. Liam crouched down behind one of the standing stones, guarding himself against the rifle fire, as it was focused mainly on him.

The supposedly wounded man suddenly got up -indicating he wasn't hurt at all- and drew a knife that I didn't see on him. He went for Liam while his back was turned, but I was just quick enough to dash at him, swiping his legs out from under him with my polearm. He rolled to the side and got back up to his feet, coming at me now.

He raised the knife up in the air, and I caught his arm, striking him in the stomach with my knee. He doubled over, and I swung down on his back with my weapon for good measure. He collapsed to the ground in a heap, groaning in quite real pain now, thanks to me. The shots kept coming at us as I ducked behind some of the rocks, and the two with the swords came running at us, one at me and one at Liam.

The raider climbed up on top of the rock I was taking cover behind, rearing his sword back and swiping down at me. I fell back to avoid the swing, pointing the business end of my weapon at him. I squeezed the trigger on the handle, and a ball of flames shot out and hit the raider in the chest, forcing him off of his feet and off of the rock, which I climbed on top of in turn.

I leaped off of the solid stone, the blade of Scholar's Boon pointing down at the burnt raider. He rolled out of the way of the edge, which stuck into the ground. He got up to his feet again as I pulled my blade out of the field, going to thrust his sword into my chest. I sidestepped the would-be stabbing, the sword finding itself between me and the shaft of my Guan Dao. I took the opportunity, pulling my weapon in against my chest, trapping his arm between my body and the polearm. I turned around, flinging him over my shoulder and onto the dirty ground with a thud. I released him, twirling Scholar's Boon in my hands before doing a side flip, planting my feet into his chest. He was down for the count for sure after that, so I stepped off of him.

I looked over to Liam, who seemed to have the situation handled on his end. The raider swung his sword at Liam, who swiped back to make their blades clash against each other. He forced the raider's sword down, pinning it to the ground to open him up. Liam followed up by headbutting the guy in the nose, making him stumble back and let go of his sword to hold his nose.

Liam swung again at him, Titan's Razor gliding across his chest, his Aegis Aura keeping him from being seriously hurt. The raider fell to the ground, going to crawl away before Liam went and kicked him in the side of the head, knocking him unconscious.

The rifleman in the treeline struggled to put his clip into his gun, Liam aiming at him with his own. He pulled the trigger, a single bullet flying through the air and hitting the man in the shoulder, a spurt of blood erupting from the hit and a pained scream escaping his throat. Panacea Aura, great for healing, not so much for stopping a bullet. He fell over, scrambling away into the woods.

Liam stood up, putting his weapon on his back. "Damn... We're wasting daylight here, let's get on our way." I nodded, stowing my weapon, slinging it across my own back. The sun was going to be setting soon, so we kept on our way.

/-/

We made it back to Wulferding, the village that hired us to kill the witch, after a couple of hours more of walking. We entered town hall, the secretary at the front desk pointing us over to the office of Aksel, the town mayor, who was pacing back and forth in his office, rubbing his hands together nervously with the small amount of hair he had on his head matted to his forehead from his sweat. I cleared my throat, and his head snapped in our direction. "I-It's you!" He stepped over to us, his heavy body coming closer to us as he perspired hard. "D-Did you do it? Is the witch dead?"

Liam nodded, "Your kids are safe now, we dealt with the witch."

"Oh, thank goodness!" He let out a huge sigh of relief, "Thank you, thank you both so much! But, uh, I suppose I'll have to um... p-pay you now, huh? Lien has been tight around here, you see, so there's uh... n-not much we can give you..."

"You won't have to worry about that anymore, either." I reached into my satchel, pulling out the gems and pearls I got from the witch's ashes. "We got these from the witch after we killed it, and they look like the real deal to us."

"W-What...?" He looked eagerly at them, "Th-That's... Can I see?" I nodded, handing one of them over to him. He took it between his fingers, inspecting it closely with his monocle. "It's... That's incredible..."

"Money won't be an issue for you anymore; it looks like." Liam crossed his arms, "We can give you half of the pearls, but we'll be taking the rest for payment. Sound fair?"

Aksel didn't even take a second to think about it; the deal was far too sweet to pass up. "Yes, Yes! Thank you! You have a deal." He extended his hand, and Liam grasped it for a shake, after which he would wipe his palm against his pants upon our exiting, the mayor's sweaty hand soaking Liam's like he dipped his appendage into a sticky, salty pond.

/-/

We made it back home when it was getting dark, the both of us stepping inside for some much-needed rest. We weren't even five steps inside when we heard the familiar sound of a cocking rifle as we entered. "It's just us, Manny!" Liam called out.

"I know." The old voice of our old man called back, putting his gun on the table. Manuel Woods was an ex-Huntsman, retired for a couple of decades. He was wearing his tattered, brown duster coat, his wide-brimmed black hat sitting on the wooden table next to his woodsman's axe Husqvarna, which doubled as a rifle because _everybody_ needs a gun sword, or gun axe, or gun-gun, something asinine like that. "I just like messing with ya is all." We were about to head to our rooms when he stopped us. "Hey, don't go just yet. Got something for you." He reached back into his coat, pulling out two envelopes. "Guess you're getting invited to Hogwarts or something." He put the letters down on the table, standing up. "I only opened them to make sure they weren't anthrax or nothin', I didn't read them, I promise."

"Thanks, Manny." I rolled my eyes, picking up the letter assigned to me and opening the already cut envelope to pull out the letter inside, the wax seal remaining unbroken until I pulled it apart. I unfolded it, and could hardly believe what I was reading. "Huh..." I thought about the Hogwarts comment Manny just made, "...Close enough."

 **/-/**


	3. Chapter 3- A

/-/ Arin /-/

In general, I liked warm weather. The cold was just uncomfortable for me, and a few years before I didn't even really have enough clothes or blankets handy to keep warm during winter back in Vacuo. But the warm weather was perfect for me, even on what other people would call the crazy hot days. I liked the heat, yeah.

But _fire_ is where I drew the damn line.

Smoke and fire poured out of every building for four blocks, and the fire department was all over the place trying to contain it, tripping over their shoelaces like a bunch of toddlers with hats and hoses. I ran around up and down the streets, jumping on top of the cars caught in the traffic jam and running across them. A few dickheads shouted at me over getting shoeprints on their cars, but honestly, I couldn't care less about that.

I scanned the place, finding a middle-aged woman screaming at one of the buildings frantically with a few firefighters trying to calm her down. I ran that way, wanting to check out the scene. I stopped by the woman, putting my hands out to calm her down.

"Chill out, what's the problem?"

The woman sobbed hard but still spoke a bit. "M-M-My daugh... my daughter!" She shouted, "I-Inside!"

"Back off, kid!" One of the meathead firemen shouted at me, "That building's less than a minute from collapsing, it'd be too dangerous!"

I looked for a way inside, of course. The door was a roaring flame; no way would I be able to make it through there. One of the windows on the third floor was the only one not bellowing fire, just some white smoke. I ran to the other side of the street, eyeing one of the streetlights near the building. I pulled one of my Gang Chainz off of my hip, and with some winding up and a good throw, I hooked it on that very light across the street.

I climbed up on top of a hotdog cart, wrapping the chain around my fist and jumping, swinging across. At the top of the swing, I used my sheer excellent skills to undo the chain, which definitely didn't come off by accident, and used my semblance to change my momentum to launch myself through the window, shattering the glass.

I landed on the hot wooden floor with a short roll, looking around. I was in what I figured was the mom's bedroom, the wood on the ceiling dropping down onto the mattress and kicking up a bunch of ambers on impact. The heat hit me like a kick in the jaw, and the smoke kept me low to the floor as I walked out of there to go looking for the kid.

"Hey!" I shouted, looking around as I exited the bedroom I came in from and opened the door, a cloud of smoke entering the room as I got out, "Kid, come on! I'm getting you-"I was interrupted by a violent coughing fit after inhaling a load of smoke on accident, "out!" My voice was raspy and scratchy now, and I was sweating bullets from the fire.

I didn't hear anything back from any kid, which made things all the more complicated for me. At this point, three things were very much possible, and I didn't like any of them. Number one, the kid's unconscious somewhere, meaning I might not be able to find them. Two, the kid's dead, which is terrible for a lot of obvious reasons. And number three, the building will collapse, and we'll both be goners. No way I was letting that last one happen, not with us inside. "Kid!"

I heard a groan coming from the room to my immediate right, thank God. The doorknob was scalding hot, so I reared back and kicked the door open, and like last time, a billow of smoke came out and flew into my face. I saw a little kid, probably around ten years old, trapped under a roof beam or something.

I ran over, hooking my Gang Chain around it to help me lift the giant hunk of wood up off of her. "Go, crawl out!" I shouted, though my voice was tortured so bad it came out more like a wheeze. The kid crawled out, though, and I dropped the pillar again, kicking up a ton of embers and smoke with its collision against the floor. Her leg was hurt bad, real bad like it might be broken or something. I picked her up, moving fast to get the hell out of that house.

Just next to me in the hallway between me and the fire escape, the floor caved in, making a huge pit of flaming debris for me to fall into nearly. I pulled back, stepping away from it. There were no ways out now except for the window at the end of the hallway behind me which led back to the street, thank God. But that was when I saw something I really wished wasn't there.

A gas boiler sitting in a closet, not yet touched by the fire but it was coming up quickly on it, _really_ fast. Working in a garage like I did for all those years, I'd have to be stone retarded not to know that fire plus gas equals little bits of Arin scattered everywhere. I made a mad dash for that window and made it just in front of it before the bang.

The blast launched me out through the window, and I held the kid close to my chest to keep her protected the best I could. I sailed through the air, the shattered glass falling around me and a massive fireball coming out of the window, as well as a sizable explosion everywhere else that toppled the place. I sailed through the air, the blast making me panic and forget to use my Semblance, and instead, I slammed down onto the roof of a car on my back. The roof caved in, cradling me in the bent metal and small glass shards.

I sat up, not hurting too much thanks to the magic of Aura. Healing was nice and quick though, also thanks to Aura. "You alright?" The kid pulled away, looking pretty terrified and bawling her eyes out. The firefighters and mom ran over right then, helping me off of the car.

"That was pretty crazy kid," One of them said, "Nice job." The mom didn't really make time to stop and thank me, snatching the kid away and crying about how worried she was. I looked around after getting off of that car, looking around for anybody else who needed my help. At least some of the firefighters were doing their damn job, so most of the people were okay.

My voice was already getting a bit better, not as scratchy but still pretty rough. "What started all of this...?"

"An arsonist, we're guessing. The fire started in an abandoned building, but it's only a theory at the moment."

"And that's it? Nothing else?"

"Well, there is one other thing. The fires follow a specific pattern; a number pattern. From what we can guess, 924 Auburn Blvd. is next on the list, authorities are on the way there now."

And just like that, I knew where I was going. "Keep up the good work." I wheezed, going to run off that way. I knew the roads well enough, all I had to do was get there before whatever pyromaniac did. I think I ran for about thirteen minutes before stopping to catch my breath and because I had reached my destination. It was a four-story house, abandoned entirely, and with flames shooting out of it.

"Damn it!" I gasped, thinking I had lost him until I saw something. Someone was running away from the fire, wearing some kind of black and white outfit. I didn't know the guy, but I chased him anyway. I ran at him, pulling out one of my Gang Chainz and swinging it over my head like a lasso before slinging the chain at him, wrapping it around the runner's leg and tripping him. I caught up with him as he was getting the chain off, jumping on top of him quite literally.

"Gotcha!" I got a good look at the guy finally, or at least as good of a look as I could with that mask in the way. The guy was White Fang for sure, and what do you know, a flask of oil just so happened to be clutched in his hands. Honestly, since he very easily could have only been a civilian running from a burning house, I was super glad he was actually the guy. Said guy planted his boot on my chest, kicking me off of him and onto my back as he scrambled to his feet.

"What are you doing?!" He growled at me, "You are a Faunus, why do you stop me?"

And that's exactly what I hate about the White Fang. They figure if you've got hair and fangs, you should automatically be on their side. I just so happened to have had a pair of antlers, so I was supposed to let him go, right?

Wrong.

"Tch." I sneered at him. "You think a guy like me wants to run with a pack of clowns like you? Fuck that noise. Now, unless you want a gold-plated ass whooping, I suggest you put your hands up and keep them there until the feds come."

And that was about when I saw two more White Fang coming up to us, each with a weapon in their hands. The guy I stopped was pretty clearly unarmed, but these two had rifles on them. They aimed them at me, squeezing the triggers and spraying some bullets my way. I rolled to the side; drawing my other Gang Chain and pulling the other one back to me, grabbing the pistol grips on each hook at each chain end.

I strafed to the right some more, pointing my guns at them and pulling the triggers, left and right in a back and forth pattern. I shot about eight shots total, the bullets striking the barrels of their guns; some fantastic shooting if I do say so myself. That seemed to screw up their weapons enough to make them have to drop them, pulling out swords instead.

The first guy ran at me, swinging the sword down at me. I spun around him to his back, swinging one of my chains around his legs and tugging hard, making him trip and eat shit on the pavement like a toddler that left its toys out all over the place.

The second guy swiped left to right at me, and I fell over on my back, landing on top of the first guy to keep him down as I shot three shots at the guy who just attacked me. He was hit all three times, and I rolled off the guy I was on and got up to my feet. Wanting to finish him off like a badass as he was getting up, now on his hands and knees, I hopped into the air and spun mid jump rapidly, extending my leg so that it collided with his face on my way down, sticking the landing like a boss.

Now all there was to deal with was the arsonist, who had nothing on him. I decided to be sporting and help the little guy out, holstering my Gang Chainz on my hips and putting up my dukes instead. He bounced on his feet with his fists raised, coming at me with a stupidly wide haymaker. I ducked under it, jabbing him quickly about three times and giving one more good swing into his head. He stumbled back but kept on his feet. Poor guy didn't know how to fight, so I went a little further to even the playing field for him. I took my hands and put them behind my back, grinning at him.

He came at me again, and I leaned back to avoid yet another blatant and predictable punch. I raised my knee up quickly, a swift hit right in the junk making him double over, putting his face in the perfect place for a follow-up knee in his nose. He recoiled back, holding his face, his cursing muffled through his hands. I decided to finish it, hopping forward at him and giving him a damn fine roundhouse in the jaw, sending him on a spinning fall to eating dirt on the ground.

I rolled my shoulders, my hands no longer behind my back. "Send a few more guys, and then it'll be even." I chortled and would have left if the cops and fire department hadn't shown up right then and there. I'll just skip the arrest and all the beaurocratic crap I had to deal with at the station and get to the fun part.

/-/

A chewing out by officer Dunkin McDoughnut later, I was still waiting in the interrogation room. Apparently, I had a visitor coming or something, so they wanted me to stick around. No way it was Mom, she was way too far away, like a day's flight or something. About half an hour later, my visitor arrived.

"My my," He said, shoving his fat self through the door, "You're a bit shorter than I was expecting." The guy wore a red button up coat, which decently complemented his black slacks. He had silver hair that parted down the middle, and he had a thick pair of eyebrows that matched the silvery color. His mustache was so thick that I couldn't see his mouth, just the hair on his lip shaking and fidgeting when he'd talk.

"And you're a lot chunkier than I was expecting."

He laughed, shaking his head. He sat down in the seat across from me, "Peter Port, but you can just call me Professor Port instead."

"Why not just Peter?"

"Well, if you accept my proposition, it'd be rather unfit for you to refer to me by my first name." I was out of snark at the moment, so I leaned back in my seat, interested in what he had to say.

"Hm..." I sighed, "Alright, fine. I'm listening."

 **/-/**


	4. Chapter 4- M

/-/ Murphy /-/

Did you know that if you take the number 41, and add first 2, then 4, then 6, to obtain the sequence 41, 43, 47, 53, etcetera, that the first 40 numbers are all primes? And no other similar series of that length exists? That was always a huge deal to me when I was younger, long before all of this. That stuff was what my parents wanted me to know, which is why I was homeschooled for so long. And that was _all_ they wanted me to know, as a matter of fact. They wanted me to grow up smart and healthy, like every parent in the world did for their kid.

... _But_ , that never stopped me from getting into trouble. Like _a lot_ of trouble.

"Open the register, damn it!" One of the robbers barked at the brunette behind the counter. And I don't just say he barked because he was a dog Faunus, I meant it in the sense that he was shouting at her, like, a lot. I liked that corner store, and I sure didn't like seeing the beautiful lady behind the counter getting a gun shoved in her face. It was a good thing they weren't very good at the whole mugging scene because none of the three punks were watching the door. I strolled right in.

I walked alongside one of the aisles of snacks and stuff, coming up on the end where one of the robbers was. He was aiming his pistol around with his arms fully outstretched coming out the end of the aisle, which gave me an excellent opportunity. I went quickly around the corner, swinging my arm down hard on his arms, and he dropped his gun which I was quick to kick away. He tried to hit me with a broad haymaker with his left arm, which I quite easily caught, giving him a knee to the stomach in return. I'll be honest; I felt kind of like a beast when I decked him in the head, knocking him to the floor. It's just too bad I made too much noise taking that guy down, one of the robbers turning to face me, brandishing his baseball bat.

He charged at me, swinging wide with his bat. I'm not stupid, so I sidestepped it instead of trying to block it, the baseball bat crushing some chip bags on the shelf. I kicked him hard in the back of the knee, which brought him down on one knee like he was proposing to the Pringles on the shelf. I gave him a hard elbow hitting him on the top of his head, which seemed to be good enough to daze him. I grabbed his bat, slugging him in the head with it to knock him out.

"Hey!" The last guy shouted at me, cocking his shotgun. He aimed it at me, and I darted behind the aisle on my right to avoid the buckshot, which shredded the soda cans in the fridge in the wall behind me, as well as the wooden bat I was holding. I sighed, dropping the broken, splintered wood to the soda-stained floor. I was really dumb, not bringing my axe with me, but I supposed I could make it out of here, the only casualties being the foodstuffs that got shredded in the process.

The lady behind the counter ducked down, presumably hitting the silent alarm while she was at it. I snuck through the adjacent aisle as he ran down the one he had just seen me in, looking around. I made it to the end near the register by the time he went into the aisle I was just in, and by then I was out of sight again. Lucky me he didn't seem to be thinking of the mirrors in the corners of the ceiling like I was, which is how I avoided him. I figured I'd kited him long enough, going to try and sneak up behind him. I got probably about a foot or two away from him before my cover was blown.

 _One. Chip._ One potato chip on the ground was crunching beneath my boot, and he spun right around to face me. I dashed forward, pushing the barrel of his shotgun upright as he was about to fire, the shot blowing a hole in the ceiling. I threw my arms to the side, throwing off his aim as I belted him in the eye, first with my right hand, then with my left. He headbutted me square in the face, making me stumble back.

He dropped his empty shotgun, going to charge me. I stayed on my feet, but he pushed me all the way to the wall behind us. He punched me twice in the ribs and kneed me in the gut before I pushed him off, hitting him on either temple with a head clap. After successfully discombobulating him, I gave him a solid front kick to the chest which nearly knocked him down.

This guy was tough, alright, even as buff as I was he just wouldn't go down that easily. He went to ram me again, but I moved out of the way, psyching him out so that he ran straight into the wall. He bounced back off of it right into my arms, which I wrapped around his waist in the not gay way, lifting him up and leaning way back, slamming him down on his head on the floor. I'd always wanted to do that.

I stood back up; he was apparently finished. I looked around for anybody else before walking over to the cute girl behind the register. She poked her head up, "Y-You… Did you beat them?"

"Yup. Now uh… Why don't we discuss payment?"

"P-Payment? O-Oh, okay, um… H-How much do you want?"

"Oh, maybe like… ten digits?"

"W-What?!"

"Yeah, ten digits." I put on my sunglasses, leaning on the counter on my elbow. "Like your phone number?" Smooooth operator.

/-/

I made it home after talking with the cops who showed up not too long after I dealt with the robbers. It was a little late, so I made sure to be quiet as I crept in through the front door. I shut it so quietly, so stealthily, and turned to look into my living room. I would have been home free if it hadn't been for my Mom, Cara, sitting in the leather chair in the den. "Where have you been?" Not five seconds in and the interrogating was already starting. "It's eleven PM on a Wednesday, where were you?"

I had a response ready already, thank God. "I was with the band, Mom. Rehearsal and all that, we have a gig coming up."

She huffed, picking up the TV remote and turning on the flatscreen. She rewound it a bit, stopping at an overhead helicopter shot of the corner store I was just at, some text scrolling across the bottom of the screen as Lisa Lavender explained what had transpired.

"-A young man showed incredulous bravery today in downtown Vale just a few hours ago when he dispatched three armed robbers inside Chet's Cornerstone, a store located south of Laney Street. The young man, identified as a Murphy L. Verner was responsible for the detainment of three escaped prisoners and would-be thieves. The young man was identified by a Ms. Amy Bernard, who had been working as a cashier at the time of the robbery and who had allegedly been told his name by Mr. Verner himself. This-"

She shut the TV off, dropping the remote in the seat of the futon. Curse Lisa Lavender, her hotness was only matched by her ability to rat me out.

"You are in a _lot_ of trouble." She gave me a stern look, my lying not helping her mood in the slightest.

I sighed, "Okay, but-"

" _But_ nothing! What you did was very, _very_ foolish!"

"I helped someone who needed it, what the hell-" I stopped myself, "...The heck is wrong with that?"

"What's wrong with that? Those men were dangerous; they could have killed you!"

"They could have killed her too; I couldn't just sit there and do nothing!"

"Why did it have to be you, then? Why not call the police, let someone else know instead of running in there, throwing your life away?!" I decided I didn't want to get into this right now. I went to walk up the stairs up to my room in a huff while she called after me. I ignored her, slamming the door behind me.

/-/

I sat in my room, still cooling down from the recent fight me and Mom had. Of course, I couldn't get much of a word in, not like I knew really how to explain myself to her if I could. She always just wanted me to live the safe life, not to get into any trouble _ever_. But I couldn't just sit there and let them get away with that, and what if they had killed that girl? I was just so frustrated; I nearly tore my punching bag open while I was hitting it. I lied down on my bed on my back, putting on my headphones and looking up at the ceiling of my room. I listened to some softer rock and roll, like the meditative kind, if that makes sense or exists. Still, it didn't take my mind off of the whole situation.

I didn't like it, not one bit. I tried to do the right thing for somebody, but I always ended up with the short stick. I'd always hear stuff like "It isn't your job to help them," or "You should have called someone.". I guess in the long run; I wanted to _be_ that someone. The someone you call when you're in danger, or you need something done. So, that night, I gave myself a choice. Either I stayed at home, lived a normal life, and never got to know what it was like to be somebody, or...

I made the calls that night to request an interview and let the band know what I was up to. It was Beacon Academy or bust.

 **/-/**


	5. Chapter 5- The Gathering

/-/ Liam /-/

With our weapons holstered and our luggage packed, we waited on the dark wood porch for the Bullhead to pick us up. I made one last mag check while Emma rummaged through her things to make sure everything was there. "Well," She sighed, "I guess it's about time we got out of the woods, right?" She laughed a bit, but it was a sort of nervous kind of laugh, the kind you make when you're feeling stressed or troubled for sure. I stowed my ammo in my bag, leaning against the wooden post on my right. She was right, I guess. We'd lived in the woods with Manny for nearly our whole lives, after all, and it's not like we could have expected to stay there forever. We already said our goodbyes to Manny, which I suppose could have been slightly more emotional than simply a 'See you later' and a 'Bye.' He never was the emotional type, I suppose.

"Yeah, it is." I shrugged, standing up off of the wooden porch. I wondered what living in a bigger city like Vale would be like; I wasn't used to big crowds of people or anything after all. "Nervous?"

"Course not." She lied, and I knew it. "You?"

"Nah, not really." I lied too, and she knew it. "It'll sure be different, though, that's certain..."

"Different like scary, or different like interesting?"

"...Both, I guess. I figure we'll just have to find out for ourselves."

"Yeah. I mean, what _haven't_ we figured out for ourselves in our lives?"

"Well, most stuff about fighting; and where babies come from."

"Do _NOT_ make me think about that! God, why did Manny have to word it like that?"

I laughed, and so did she. This change, what was coming up for us in the future...? I could _never_ expect it, not in a million years.

/-/ Emma /-/

And in less than an hour or so, we were on a Bullhead heading for Vale. We kept ourselves occupied with idle chatter, stuff like what classes we wanted to take, what we thought they might have, what celebrities we thought were cute, stuff like that. It took a while to get to where we were going, and I had almost forgotten that they weren't taking us directly to Haven, but instead to a huge ship in Patch. Once we touched down, we picked up our stuff and stepped out of the Bullhead, heading toward that ship while we were in the middle of an earnest discussion.

"But why would they chase down a ten year old for all those years for his electric rat instead of going after one of the _dozens_ of legendary Pokemon that they'd seen in that time?"

I rolled my eyes with a hefty sigh, " _Because_ Pikachu is special! He's like, the most powerful of his kind _ever_. Geez, you act like you know nothing about Pokemon!"

"But they ran into super powerful stuff like Mew-Two, and Ho-Oh, and Arceus, who is literally _GOD_! Doesn't that take some priority?"

I would have retaliated, but I didn't want to sound like too much of a nerd in front of the vast crowd of people we were just then walking into. Liam got to have the last laugh, for now, I guess. We got inside the ship, which was pretty swanky if you ask me. It had plush, cushioned seats all along the walls with adequate spacing for the double doors which we came in through up a ramp. There were also monitor screens on the walls with windows on both sides, and a big one in the very center of the room, perfectly spaced so that it was the same distance between all the walls. It was pretty cozy; Beacon wasn't messing around when it came to accommodations.

I looked around, getting a look at all the other students. None of them stood out until I saw one among the crowd who stuck out like a sore thumb. He was short, maybe just a little over 5 feet tall or so, with dark skin and a small set of antlers on his head. He had messy looking, scraggly, dark red hair, and a brighter red bandana tied around his right arm. Other than those things, he stood out a lot because he looked like he came from a more... impoverished region. He wore a red shirt which may have been long sleeved at first, but the sleeves were torn off just at his shoulders, as well as some holes in the torso area. He wore a pair of dark yellow mechanic's gloves on his hands which were stained with oil or some other black substance. His pants, if you could call them that, looked more like burlap sacks or something, tied around his waist with a shoestring or some other thin rope. He had a backpack lying down next to his feet. I didn't get to see his weapons; I assumed they were in his bag.

I decided that maybe if I felt like it, I might try and strike up a conversation with him or something. The weirdest part- and I don't mean this to sound rude- but as poor, as he looked, he didn't look very impressed by his surroundings. I don't know if it was an act, or if he just didn't care, but I looked away once I figured I'd been looking for too long. We sat down in one of the comfortable seats, getting ready for the long trip.

/-/ Arin /-/

It's hard to act like you aren't impressed on a huge fancy ship heading for Beacon Academy; it was exciting. This ship was _beautiful_ , like a big mechanical wet dream. I wondered what all went into making this giant son of a bitch, like what parts were used and all that. I probably thought more of the ship than anything else most of the ride there.

I stood against one of the walls, putting my bag next to my feet. I guess this was it, time to show the world how badass I was. The bus ride to the ship wasn't too long, as I was already in Vale when they rounded me up, but the waiting was killing me. I looked around for somebody to talk to, or just look at, I don't know. After a little bit of searching, I saw a couple of other students sitting in the seat next to the door. It was a girl and a guy, but the girl caught my attention more than anybody. First off, though, I'll describe the guy. He had brown hair and green eyes like the girl next to him, and a pretty fancy black and white shirt with some hints of green. He had some black slacks on as well as a brown braided belt, and some black and green steel-toed boots, with some metal pegs on the ends. He had a sword propped up on the seat next to him, probably about as big as his torso with a rifle barrel going along the back end, opposite of the business end.

The girl, however, was a lot more... distracting, I guess. Brown hair, green eyes, really shouldn't have to repeat that part. She wore a zipped up, long, dark green military looking vest, her arms exposed to the air. Speaking of exposed, she also wore light brown short shorts, which showed _so much leg_ I had to pry my eyes away. Brown boots, a short sword like a dao or something on her hip as well. Geez, what kind of girl would wear shorts that short, she'd kill someone like that for sure! I closed my eyes in frustration, grumbling and going to start heading over to the bathroom. I had to take a wicked leak, and I sure wasn't going to do it in the fern next to me.

/-/ Murphy /-/

I got off the Bullhead and walked past the soldiers swiftly toward the ship just as it was loading the last of the students. I still couldn't believe I was there; it was like a dream of mine to get to Beacon, and there I was! I got a look at everybody around, and there were a _lot_ of interesting people. All sorts of guns and swords and axes and stuff; everybody had something different. My axe, which sat comfortably in the guitar case slung across my back, paled in comparison to some of the gear I saw there.

I didn't let it get to me too badly. I sat down on one of the cushioned seats, grabbing my MP3 player to turn on my tunes. I lost track of time, but it was a good while later before my playlist ended and I heard something going on not too far away from me.

"Well, la-de-god damn-da! You should have been watching where you were going, jackass!"

"Just back off man, we didn't mean anything, it was an accident."

"And don't go telling me what to do, got that?!"

Ah geez, sounded like a fight was going down. Two guys and a girl, that's what it seemed like anyway. I went to make my way through the crowd, weaving past everybody who was gathered at the scene and it was... a mess.

A bunch of papers and what looked like some mechanic's tools were lying on the floor in a pile. A short, dark-skinned Faunus guy and an admittedly average looking girl with some legalicious short shorts and a guy in some swanky looking clothes standing on the sidelines were in a shouting match.

"Just look what you did!" The Faunus shouted, "You got my tools everywhere, damn it!"

"I could care less about those; you knocked my bag right out of my hands!" The girl shouted back. The fight was getting heated, and if there was one thing my mom taught me, it's that you can always talk it out.

 **/-/**


	6. Chapter 6- Break It Up

/-/ Liam /-/

Emma threw the first punch, which didn't surprise me in the slightest. What I didn't expect was for the Faunus to come back so hard at her, it was like a full on battle in the ship. Her first attack whiffed right past his nose, and he leaned back and went into a full-on back handspring, bouncing on his toes after the landing and coming back with a spin kick with his right leg. The crowd cheered and laughed while they went at it, the Faunus coming at her again after she stepped back to avoid the spin kick. He crouched down, placing his hands on the ground and swinging both of his legs at her like some breakdancing move, lifting his hands up when needed so his legs could pass underneath. Her leg was swept out from underneath her, knocking her off balance and he stood back up to hit her in the hip with a side-kick, knocking her onto the floor which she rolled off of into a crouching position.

The Faunus rolled his shoulders and bounced on his toes, cracking his neck. "Come on, that all you got?" And that, in fact, was not all she had. Emma jumped back up to her feet, sprinting at him and raising her knee to kick him in the stomach. That seemed to catch him off guard and make him double over, letting her strike him again with an elbow to the top of his head. He fell over onto the ground, one hand propping him up on the floor and the other holding his scalp. She reared back, kicking him in the side to knock him over. He rolled along the floor after the kick, getting back up to his feet holding his ribs.

It was just about then that I figured I'd try to get between them and break it up. The two were swinging at each other like none other; it was total mayhem. I went in to put my arms between them to push them apart while they grappled each other, trying to impose myself in between them. "Guys, knock it off!" All these efforts ended up earning me were a few hits in my head from both parties which were meant for each other. I backed up away from them, and the doors to the ship opened to a big courtyard. It looked like we had finally reached our destination after all. Emma pushed the Faunus away toward the door, giving a short run toward him before jumping and extending her legs toward him in a dropkick which sent him tumbling down the ramp.

/-/ Arin /-/

I reached the bottom of the ramp and rolled to my feet, but the girl was quick to chase after me, jumping down the length of the ramp at me with a jump kick. I darted to the side to get out of the way, and she made a pretty solid roll along the ground to catch herself on landing. I gave her a hop with two kicks in it, with my left then right leg, which she blocked both with her forearms. She wrapped her arm around my ankle on the second kick, reaching her foot after mine which was still on the ground and kicking it out from under me. I hit the ground with a thump, and she planted her shoe on my chest, still holding onto my leg. "Say uncle!" She demanded, but I wasn't having any of that. I rolled over on my shoulders, lifting my free leg to kick her in the back, which slacked her grip enough so I could turn over, her foot losing its place from my chest to the ground. After making my escape and getting back up to my feet I charged at her, leaping up at her.

She grabbed me when I hopped onto her, and I swung myself around so that my ankles wrapped around her neck, using my weight to toss her to the ground and stick the landing. She remained on the ground long enough for me to spin around quickly to backflip on top of her, going to land on her head before she just barely managed to roll out of the way. She was damn good; I had to give her that much at least. But there wasn't a chance in hell I was going to lose to her, not in my lifetime.

We fought for a little while longer before we were stopped by one of the teachers, the one who had the same voice as the woman from a message we had heard on the way there. A pair of waves of purple energy of some sort hit us both, knocking us on our asses quickly. I looked over to her and, yes, it _was_ that Glynda Goodwitch lady. A pair of black knee-high boots and some corset-blouse outfit with a purple cape on her back and curly golden hair stomped toward us with a riding crop in her hand, adjusting the glasses on her nose. "You two!" She growled at us, "Unsanctioned fighting on school property is strictly prohibited! This is your _only_ warning." At that, she stormed off, and we each took a few moments to crawl up to our feet weakly. That blast she hit me with hurt a lot more than it would seem, it felt like getting hit with a sledgehammer. I brushed myself up, spitting on the ground and walking back to the ship to get my stuff, and she did the same.

/-/ Emma /-/

Everybody was gathered in the ballroom, sleeping bags and blankets littering the area with boys and girls alike in their sleeping clothes. I sat against the wall, sketchpad in hand as I sketched away my feelings of frustration. Whoever was that guy anyway, what was his problem? In any case, the fight was broken up so none of that mattered anymore, so long as I could stay away from him for the rest of my time there. I thought about Ozpin's speech, the one he gave just before we went into the ballroom...

 _"I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you are finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge will only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."_

That, being said to us just before Ms. Goodwitch dismissed us all to the ballroom, made me think of exactly what the headmaster meant. What did he mean, knowledge only carrying us so far? Skills, sure, something like that is also essential, but I couldn't help but feel like I entirely missed the point of his speech, like he was saying something more profound than that that I didn't catch. That may not have mattered either; I would have just to see what happened, I guessed.

Liam was doing an inventory check of his things while I was writing, keeping the drawing away from him. My stuff was in my bag which sat just to my right, exactly where I wanted it to be. Liam tossed his duffle bag against the wall, laying down a sleeping bag for himself. "Got everything with you?" He looked over to me, sitting against the wall to my left.

I put down my sketchpad, deciding to finish my art later. "Yeah, I got everything I dropped. Geez, that guy was annoying..."

"Hey, forget about him already, alright? We'll probably never have to deal with him again after today. For now, let's get some rest. We have a big day ahead of us, with initiation and everything."

I sighed, "Right. 'Night."

"'Night."

At that I slipped into my bedroll, turning away from him and shutting my eyes. _Welcome to Beacon..._

 ** _/-/_**


	7. Chapter 7- Initiation

/-/ Murphy /-/

I stood on the platform embedded in the ground on the hill, somewhere in the middle of a long line of Huntsmen and Huntresses on my left and right. We were about the third or fourth group of twenty today for initiation, having all waited patiently for the other waves of students to do whatever it was they did for induction. We all were facing Headmaster Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch, the former of the two addressing us all. My guitar case sat comfortably slung across my back with my bolt quiver hanging from my right hip, thirty metal crossbow bolts prepared for when I need them. The wind blew softly, making a pleasant breeze as Ozpin spoke.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors. And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

I took a look past him at the forest he referred to. There were rolling green hills, the wind blowing through the trees to make pleasant rustling sounds like a flock of birds chirped and tweeted on their way past. The sun shone over the landscape making it seem like something out of a fairytale novel, which reminded me of the stories that my mom would read to me as a kid for all those years before I came here.

"You have all surely heard rumors of team assignments." He continued, "And I can assure you after this initiation has come to pass, you will be assigned your teammates. They will be with you for the rest of your time at this school so I would advise you try to find one with whom you work well." That part caught me off guard, admittedly. That suddenly put a lot of pressure on this whole situation, not only did I have to do well on this initiation but now I had to worry about who I was going to be picked to partner with. A part of me was hoping it'd be a beautiful girl, and I suppose that part of me was just about all of me.

"That being said," _Oh boy, there's more._ "The first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." Well, if I thought it was pressuring _before_ , now it was a whole other ball game. This whole thing told me that my partner is going to be totally random, someone I have _never_ seen before most likely. I honestly felt like there was an inherent flaw in that plan, but I suppose I wasn't one to judge how to or how not to group up a bunch of teenagers because odds were they'd be fighting and hating each other most of the time no matter how you grouped them. Looking to my left and right, I saw there were at least plenty of capable looking fighters among the crowd, so it wasn't much to worry about. Worst case scenario, I would end up getting carried my whole way through the four years I'd be there.

"Once you find a teammate, you will be heading eastward toward an abandoned temple, where you and your partner will take one of the several relics and return to the mountain. There will be opposition in the form of different types of Grimm, which _will_ kill you if you allow them the opportunity. You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. Are there any questions?" Nobody said anything. "Good! Now, take your positions." It only took a few seconds to roll by that the other students started getting catapulted by the metal platforms, sailing into the forest. Before I knew it, I was soaring through the air, fast as a shark and flailing in midair for some moments before positioning myself accordingly. I had to think quickly of what I was going to do; no way was I going to end up dying right out the gate.

I saw what looked like a big pond somewhere ahead of me, and with the precise maneuvering, I could make it. I used what little I knew about skydiving that I learned from video games, and miraculously I ended up on a high-speed trip into the deep pond. I drifted down in the water for a few seconds once I slowed down, immediately swimming back upward to the surface of the water. I surfaced, taking in a deep gasp of air, swimming toward the shore. My clothes were soaked, as well as my hair which had the gel washed out of it from the initial dive. That was by far the closest I had come to death in a long time, and I took a few minutes just laughing in the hysteria that I was alive. I settled down, taking a sec to fix up my hair and pulling out my axe before going to head out to find someone decent to pair up with hopefully.

/-/ Emma /-/

I made a slope of ice using a couple of Dust cartridges and a hillside to slide my way to the ground, and after a while of zipping by on the slippery surface, I finally slowed to a stop, right by a large field. I took a second to gather myself before stepping into the area, Scholar's Boon in my hands. I kept a sharp eye out for any Grimm, as well as any of the other students. I already had plans to get teamed up with Liam, so I was going out of my way for the time being to try not to make eye contact with anybody else. After some wandering around, I found myself near a rushing river with several stones dotting it making a possible path if I wanted to cross, though I'd have to jump to each one and I wasn't sure if the water was going to wash me away. Unfortunately, my ice Dust supply was exhausted from my landing, as I only thought I'd need two of each capsule.

I heard a pretty loud snarling to my right, and when I turned to look, there was a Beowulf rushing toward me. I didn't have time to think of how odd it was that it was alone as I found myself within swiping distance quickly. I barely had any time to protect myself with the shaft of Scholar's Boon, spinning it to compensate for the force of the blow to carry it through without harming me or knocking it out of my hands. It wound back for another swing, so I took the chance to thrust the blade of my weapon into its abdomen. The attack of opportunity was helpful for staggering it, leaving it open to my follow-up, where I yanked the sharp instrument and flourished it, swinging it across the beast's throat. I'd practiced that move hundreds of times, so one could imagine my surprise when the Grimm protected its throat with its arms, quite efficiently as to end my momentum entirely. It was soon apparent this Beowulf, in particular, was much, _much_ stronger than any normal one I had faced before. It made me wonder what exactly distinguished an alpha from a beta. Was it natural talent, or pure skill?

It raised its arms, bringing the claws down at me and leaving only a small window for me to hop back to avoid it. This Beowulf was no alpha, and it was utterly alone, which started to bother me. I began to worry about this whole fight, thinking maybe I'd have to make my way out of it if it got too hairy. I backed up from it, keeping on the defensive so the lone wolf wouldn't tear my head off. The wound I gave it was visibly slowing it down, at least, which was helpful for obvious reasons. I tried to get in every strike I could, but only a few would connect in any practical way. Things were starting to get manageable until I saw, from the corner of my eye, three or four more Beowulves creeping out from the tree line. I understood what was happening now, and I berated myself for not catching on sooner. This one was the defacto leader of this pack, and it went in to soften me up so that killing me would be easier for the others. Now was the time to escape, but the only way that could work would be the precariously spaced stones in the river. I figured even if the water carried me away, it would be safer than this. I took a leap of faith, first swiping at the Beowulf's head to stun it before hopping onto the first stone. It was dry enough to get traction on, but I couldn't take the time to balance myself correctly as I was still within swinging distance of the Grimm. The other three were starting to catch up now, so I jumped quickly to the second stone.

I slipped but was able to hold on, so I didn't get pulled into the water. I righted myself, standing on the small area of the rock. One of the Beowulves jumped after me, but I ducked out of the way of the claw that would have reached me, and it fell into the water, flailing and splashing a long way before suddenly going low, out of sight in an instant. That was when I got the sinking, disgusting suspicion that there was, in fact, a waterfall at the end of this river. If I slipped or misstepped on these rocks, it would be all over for me. Still, this was a better alternative to the inevitable death that was the Beowulves which were waiting at the side of the river I was just at. The next rock had a sloped surface facing me, so I'd have to grab on with my hands. I slung Scholar's Boon on my back and took a deep breath, going for the next jump.

 **/-/**

 **Can you catch the song title I snuck in there? If you're an Accept fan, you might see it, even though it's probably pretty subtle.**


	8. Chapter 8- Initiation Pt 2

/-/ Liam /-/

I sprinted toward the direction of the scream, rifle in hand as I raced to the cry for help. I dodged a few obstacles on the way, like fallen trees or protruding roots from the ground that would have tripped me. I got closer to the source, the sound of rapidly running water filling my ears and the moisture in the air filling my lungs. My eyes darted around as I got to a river, with a very familiar figure holding on for dear life on a sloped rock. It was Emma, my sister, caught in a rapid river with several Beowulves on the other side. They all took their eyes off her and put them on me, snarling and growling, even though they couldn't get to me. I would have mowed them down with my rifle if not for the fact that my twin sister's life was currently hanging in the balance, which required my immediate attention. She was around the middle, which made things difficult as I didn't have the reach to get to her. It was times like this I wish my damn semblance worked when I wanted it to, instead of just whenever it felt like it.

"Em!" I called to her, getting her just now to notice I was there.

"Liam!" She called back, "The rock; it's slippery! I-I can't hold on much longer!"

I cursed, thinking of a way I could fix this. I got to the edge of the river, clicking Titan's Razor into sword mode and driving it deep into the ground. It wasn't a hundred percent solid, but it was just enough for it to take a great amount of force if I wanted to lever it. I made a few deep breaths, and with my hand on the handle of my sword, I stepped into the river. My feet were quickly taken out from under me, and I soon found myself in a similar position as Emma. I reached my hand out to her. "Grab on!" I shouted over the rapids. She reached out for it slowly, her grip on the rock weaker and weaker as she strained for my hand. We were just barely too far apart; she couldn't just simply grab on at this distance. She took a _deep_ breath, and with all the strength she had, she lunged for my hand, and I was able to get a hold of her wrist just after her grasp of the rock was released. From there, we were able to pull back up to semi-dry land, taking our time to breathe after all that. The Beowulves ran off after I got her out, either to try and make it around the river before we leave or to find some other student to chomp on. Either way, they weren't an issue for us anymore.

I stood up; my clothes damp from the water like hers were. I coughed and gasped for air, and apparently, Emma wasn't in much better condition. "H-Holy crap..." She coughed, "Thanks for the save."

I smiled "I guess we're teammates now, huh?" earning a small laugh out of her. I helped her stand back up. "Come on, the temple's north of here."

/-/ Arin /-/

A while after totally nailing my landing, I walked into a clearing in the woods. There were trees all around, and grass tall enough to reach my waist. I walked through the grass, looking for either a Grimm's ass to kick or for another student to team up with. I suddenly heard a rustling noise nearby on my right. I ducked down in the grass, waiting so that I could see what's out there before they could see me. I looked around for any sign of life, Beowulf or human, whatever. At the next rustling noise, I pulled out my Gang Chainz, standing up again.

"Who's there?" I yelled. If it was a Grimm, I could easily take it on single-handedly. If it were a person, I wouldn't even have to worry about getting my hands dirty. There were no snarls or anything yet, so I figured maybe it was another student. Not like I needed a partner, but I suppose if I _had to_ , I could tolerate it. I was getting just a bit frustrated after a long time of silence. I pointed my pistols their way, shouting, "Come out!"

A pair of arms came up, "Don't shoot!" He shouted back, "Human!" He stood up, and now I could see him perfectly. He was a human alright, with black, gelled up hair and sunglasses. He had a leather jacket with some red stripes down the arms, and a torn up red shirt underneath. He had some black pants with a chain on the hip, the knees shredded in the way that says he did it on purpose. He also had some armor; some metal on his right shoulder, both of his forearms, and his legs. The armor had a real scrappy, homemade look to them, which I respected. He had an axe in his hand that looked like a guitar, and an instrument case on his back. His whole outfit was damp like he'd gotten face-deep into some water before I saw him. He sighed, twisting his finger in his ear, "You got a partner yet?" I shook my head, "Well then, I guess you do now." He walked over, and I put my guns down. When he got close, that's when I realized just how tall this guy was. He was easily six and a half feet tall or something, but that might have just been perspective. "Name's Murphy. Murphy Verner." He stuck his hand out to me.

I shook his hand, figured I might as well. "Arin. Arin Rosewood." I looked up at him, "Jesus, what did your parents feed you?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, "Vegetables, milk, the essential stuff." Well, that explained it. It made me think about the stuff I've been eating all my life, not the healthiest sort of things, meat mostly. I'd eat more vegetables, but they taste like they came out of the ground. If he was this tall just from that, I figured it might be worth a shot when I got out of there in one piece, which I always knew I was going to... But then I thought about it and figured that instead, I'd give myself a big-ass slice of cake when this shitshow was over.

"Well, whatever." I started on my way where I figured north was, "Come on, I'm pretty sure the place is this way." He started following me, encasing his guitar in the case and slinging it back over his back.

/-/

"So, Murphy," I said. Nothing had come after us in a little while, so I figured I'd break the silence. Besides, if he was going to be my partner until graduation, I figured I'd get to know him some. "What are you doing at Beacon?"

"Oh, uh," He shrugged, "It's just what I wanted to do, ya know? I mean..." He shook his head, "Whatever, it doesn't matter."

"It kinda does." I said, "Figured we may as well get buddy-buddy with each other, so I just wanted to know a little something about you."

"Well, alright." He took his glasses off, hanging them on his shirt collar and showing off his purple eyes, "I grew up pretty sheltered as a kid, and my parents were protective of me. And one day, I saw a Huntsman on TV and said... 'Man, I wish I could be like him'... And I could. So, I saved up my allowance, got some weights, and started getting in shape. It was like pulling teeth trying to convince my parents to let me go to combat school. But eventually, with enough pleading, they finally caved. And here I am, after a couple of years."

"Just like that, huh?" I looked back at him.

"Yeah." He nodded slowly, "Just like that." He cleared his throat, "So, what about you?"

I took a second to think of my answer, "Same as yours." I shrugged, "I just needed to get away from home, so I did. That's all." Thank God he didn't press it any further than that. We stopped in our tracks when we heard a growling noise, both of us drawing our weapons.

The thing I like about Grimm is that they have no idea how to make a proper sneak attack. It came running at me, snarling and growling so much only a deaf guy could be surprised by it. It was a Beowulf, the basic bitch of all the Grimm. I brought my guns up to blow a hole in its head, but Murphy already had me covered. He swung his guitar down right on its neck, and it slammed into the ground. He tugged on the axe, planting his boot on it so he could pull it out. While it was fizzling, a second Beowulf came running in. I had this one, swinging my hook up through its jaw and rolling down on my back. I planted my shoe on its chest, kicking it away as I climbed back up to my feet. I wrapped the chain around my fist and tugged hard on the hook, and with the pull of the secondary trigger its head came off like the string of a party popper.

If there were any more, they must have decided to just go away instead of messing with us. I shouldn't have been surprised at myself scaring those punk-asses off like that; I was a hardcore boss after all. I spun my guns around and stowed them in the holsters, rolling my shoulders. I looked back at Murph. "Good hustle." I nodded, starting to head that way again, "Come on, the thing's this way."

 **/-/**


	9. Chapter 9- Initiation Pt 3

c/-/ Murphy /-/

About seven Beowulves and an Ursa later, Arin called to me from ahead up in the trees. "Hey, found it!" He jumped down from the branch he was perched in, stopping and waiting for me to catch up with him. Once I caught up, I saw the temple not too far ahead, a bunch of stands around some pillars, each one with what looked like a chess piece on it, gold or black. We both ran that way; so many relics were there we looked like maybe the second or third group to get there. We stood in the center of the old stone ruin, looking at all the available pieces. Arin snatched up the black king piece first, whistling to himself. "And just like that, we are outta here."

I was just getting ready to put away my guitar when there was a loud noise in the nearby tree line. Arin sighed deeply, raising his hooks in his hands and getting ready. We were already exhausted from the massive opposition we've been facing on our way here, so we indeed weren't in the mood for any more Grimm. What made things even worse was that instead of giving us an Ursa or Beowulf to deal with for the umpteenth time, a giant Deathstalker came into view. That did _not_ bode well for us for obvious reasons. Arin and I both stepped back, and I was ready to make a break for it out of there. Arin seemed to have different plans though, swinging his chains in circles as he went full sprint at it. The Grimm jabbed its massive stinger at him, which he narrowly avoided, getting in a few swipes on one of its front legs. It batted him to the side with its pincer, pulling its stinger from the ground and turning to get at him again.

I pushed the neck of my guitar into the base, the body of it spreading out in a V shape with a satisfying click. I loaded an arrow into it and aimed, going to shoot it in one of its six beady eyes while Arin righted himself to his feet. I pulled the trigger, the metal bolt sailing through the air at it, narrowly missing its shot, scraping against its white bone chitin. Even with that small failure, I still caught its attention away from my partner, who wasted no time swinging his chain to wrap around its stinger, sticking the other hook into the ground behind him deeply to anchor it in place. He bound the chains around his fists, holding it back with all his strength as its stinger could not come to strike me. I changed my Law back to its axe form, charging at it. It brought a pincer to stop me, which I swung into and embedded the blade of Law deeply into, cracking through the armor to wound it severely. It shrieked with rage and agony, its other pincer snapping my torso, squeezing me in its grip. I struggled in its grasp, working my hands to push the pincers apart to free myself. It was firm and almost unmoving. I didn't have the force I needed to escape, but I could quickly ease the grip it had on me for some wiggle room, at least.

Arin looked over to me with his strained face, huffing and grunting as he kept the stinger away. He nodded his head, glancing at my axe which was still stuck in its first pincer, and I knew he had a plan now. I didn't have one at all, so I suppose I had to take his word for it on that one. I took a deep breath, pulling my hands from the claw which immediately snapped shut on me again, and _geez_ did that one hurt. Aegis Aura isn't fantastic at dulling pain, but it keeps you from getting snipped in half at times like this. With a significant effort, I yanked the axe out of its claw with a satisfying crackling noise as it pulled out of the bone, and I raised it as a sort of shield, for I knew for a fact what Arin was going to pull.

He released the anchor hook from the ground, the one holding his proportionately small body down to the earth, and as the pointed tail sliced through the air and came at me, he swung over its head with a holler, releasing halfway up so that it threw him high into the air. He spun and twirled in the air with his chains, which was neat and all, but I was currently absorbed in trying to keep the giant scorpion from murdering me. I looked too good to die like _that._ Arin started falling from his height in the sky, twirling in the air and swinging his pistol hooks at it. His sickle flourished into the underside of the left side of the Deathstalker, digging deep into its char black, exposed flesh. It shrieked, loosening its grip on me enough for me to pry myself from its grasp. Arin air dashed slightly upward so he could slow his descent and soften his impact to the ground.

 _Now_ Arin decided it was a good time to book it, going full sprint in the opposite direction. "Run!" He shouted, and I wasn't in any mood to stick around, so naturally, I sprinted to keep pace. It seemed like all there was left to do was outrun this nightmarish hell beast, and we were good as gold.

/-/ Emma /-/

A King Taijitu sounds like a scary opponent, at least to the inexperienced. In reality, they were almost so simple to defeat it was deceptive. The two heads the body shares are both individuals, each with thoughts and ideas separate from the other. Separate goals can lead to conflict between the two, which can drive them apart with enough pressure. They turn on each other, biting and hissing and making wounds on each other that may never heal. It's up to you whether or not you deal the final blow to them in their weakest moment, or to leave them to destroy each other. Manny taught us that during training one day, and it helped us during initiation with one we encountered.

We finally were coming up on the ruins, proving Ozpin's spiel about how we'd face stiff opposition to be blisteringly accurate. Liam and I both noticed a sizable Deathstalker which was running away from the ruins for reasons we didn't know but didn't care to find out. We quickly made our way over to it, gazing at the leftover chess pieces on each column, gold or black, set up in exact chess positioning facing us, which I found satisfying. There were two full sets of them, with just a few pieces missing from either collection. Liam picked up the black king piece, and since I didn't have a preference as to which one we took, we settled on that one. We stepped away from the ruin, looking for the cliff we had to make it back to. The ruins themselves were north from where we started, so of course, it was south, our weapons staying in our hands as we walked that way calmly. We kept a sharp eye out for if even more, Grimm popped up, but it looked like we were in the clear for the moment.

Liam cut through some vines and branches with his sword, taking the lead while I watched our backs, just like old times. We were sure it was going to be easy on the way back, stopping when we heard a young man's voice. "H-Hey! Someone, help!" We were already partnered up, of course, but we figured we had to help out whoever seemed to be in trouble. We ran that way, careful in case a Beowulf or other Grimm jumped out. We came near a big cave, more screaming coming from inside.

Liam raised his rifle, staring down the sights as he began slowly stepping in. "Wait a minute." I whispered, "If someone's in trouble in there, shouldn't we get a teacher?"

"We can't do that, remember." He said, his eyes not moving away from the mouth of the cave, "The instructors won't help us if we get in trouble. If someone's in trouble in there, it's up to us to get them out. You ready?" He was right, I conceded. I nodded, getting Scholar's Boon ready as we stepped inside.

 **/-/**


	10. Chapter 10- Initiation Pt 4

/-/ Arin /-/

The Deathstalker we were dealing with wasn't in the mood for letting us go; I guess we should have figured. It chased and chased us through the Emerald Forest, plowing through tree trunks and some big rocks. Murph and I couldn't discuss a plan while we were running for our damn lives, but I figured improvising could work, eventually. I climbed up one of the trees onto a branch, jumping quickly into another one after the Scorpion knocked it over. I cocked my pistols, shooting up its body anywhere that didn't seem armored. What sucked, however, was that the body of it was invulnerable to my shots.

The legs, on the other hand, were nice and soft looking. It turned its attention to me, and Murph took the opportunity to duck behind a fallen tree for cover. "Yo, Murph!" I called out to him, "Go for the legs!" I shouted, just before its stinger came up at me. I bent way back, lying down on my back on the branch as the stinger dug into the trunk, maybe just a few inches off its mark. I swiped the exposed stinger with my hook, which seemed to hurt a _LOT_ for it. Murphy charged out from his cover, swinging his axe with a crushing blow to one of the legs, a massive black wound emerging with what you could kind of call blood. A shriek later, he ducked under the swipe of its claw, smacking its face with the blade of his guitar. It glanced off the hit, but I'll be damned if it wasn't nice and preoccupied with that.

I took probably the steadiest aim of my life, firing a single shot into one of its back legs. It burst with more of that foul smelling blood stuff, thrusting its stinger at me one more time while going to pinch Murph again. I jumped from my spot in the tree this time, rolling along the ground with a few more shots at its legs. Murphy narrowly avoided another squeezing, striking it in the chops with his axe again. He swung down hard on it, much more than just a grazing blow, cracking the armor on its face with a hefty swing. There was no real damage, but if that wasn't a good opening that he just made I don't know what would be.

We kept up the pattern of one of us distracting it so the other could get a few swings in for a few more minutes, and now the Deathstalker was looking pretty wounded. It should have backed off by now with how torn up it was, but it was standing its ground all the same. The armor on its face was cracked open like a damn egg, as well with some good cracks and scratches on other parts of its body. Three of its eight legs were down for the count, and it had several gushing wounds. We had our fair share of damage too, Murph's Aura and my body well dinged up in the scrap. Grimm had a habit of never bailing out, even if they were outmatched to hell and back. It knew that fighting us more would kill it, but it couldn't just back off and let us have the win. Of course, it went for us again, and a harsh blow to the head from Murphy finally put it down for good, making it go limp and start fizzling.

I took a few deep breaths, looking around to make sure no other sneaks were going to jump out at us. With the Deathstalker down for the count, we started making our way back to the cliff, which I could see just above the trees.

On our way back, I couldn't help but congratulate Murph on his good work back there. Of course, I was still the best, but he was okay too. It was starting to look like this partnership was going to work out after all, which was good because I was sure my partner was going to be dead weight before we met up. At this rate, these four years were going to be a cakewalk for sure.

/-/ Liam /-/

I kept my aim steady as me and Emma quickly and quietly walked deeper into the cave. It got pretty dark halfway through, Emma using her Scholar's Boon as a torch to light it up. I heard a scuttling sound on the ceiling above us just then, and I quickly aimed up at the ceiling to see nothing but rocks. We looked around for a second before starting through again. It was now all too quiet, no more screams for help that either of us could hear. I was starting to get that sinking feeling in my gut, the one I get when I feel like we're walking straight into a trap. We had no choice when it came to walking into this one though because I knew for a fact Emma couldn't sleep at night knowing we left some kid down there to rot.

I suppose I wasn't watching where I was stepping carefully enough, suddenly kicking something and nearly tripping over it. I quickly caught myself, regaining my balance and looking down to see what was unmistakably a human skull. That alone told me all I needed to know about the mess we were getting ourselves into. We moved on from that, and I noticed as we got further in that the cobwebs on the walls of the cave started getting bigger and bigger, and were nearly the length of my body from head to toe now. ' _Spiders,'_ I thought to myself, ' _why does it have to be spiders?'_

Emma caught up on that hint just as quickly as I did, two-handing her weapon as we suddenly came into a big room. Webs decorated the whole of the floor and walls, and several prominent bundles dangled from the ceiling. Most of them seemed like animals, which was good, but two of them were human shaped, and one was writhing and squirming. I pointed them out, "There, two students, it must be."

Emma nodded, and before we could start figuring out a way to get them down safely, we heard some hissing and skittering all around us. Blackstriders began coming out of holes in the walls, their pitch-black bodies with eight long, spindly legs, their six bright red eyes lit up and looking right at us. Their bodies and parts of their legs were plated with the natural white chitin, trademark Grimm armor. No need for introductions, I put my sights on one and pulled the trigger, putrid black ichor spilling from it as I blew a hole in it big enough to put it down instantly. Unfortunately, right as I killed it, another one took its place. I could tell already it was going to be one of _those_ battles.

One reared up and leaped at Emma, who effortlessly spun Scholar's Boon and sliced it in half. I riddled two more of them with bullets before impaling one on Titan's Razor's blade. We were stronger than any of them, but it was all a numbers game. They could just throw more and more of them at us until we were overwhelmed, and we'd end up like those two on the ceiling.

Emma started blasting the newly entering Blackstriders with a wide cone of fire from the blade end of her polearm, while I shot and slashed about six or seven of them. Grimm never retreat, so it was all a matter of hoping that even more of them weren't going to come out after us while we fought through them. Eventually, I was running low on ammo; only one magazine left for my rifle. I needed to start rationing out the amount I used, mostly using the blade now. I felt my foot unable to step off the ground suddenly, looking up to see one on the wall, slinging globs of its webs at us. I aimed down the sights at it and was just about to fire when it sprayed its web on the barrel of Titan's Razor, making me unable to take the shot. "Emma, on the wall, six o' clock!" I shouted.

She spun around, flinging a ball of flame at the wall-crawler and incinerating it. Their numbers were becoming less and less, and soon enough Emma was slicing through the very last one, a final black spray against the wall from its gaping wound smelling like brimstone marking our victory. I got the last of the gunk off of my shoe and weapon, heaving a sigh. Now all that was left was to figure out how to get the students down from the ceiling.

Blackstrider webs were durable, but also had plenty of elasticity to them. We worked some of the webbings around from the floor and walls to form a stable net below the dangling bodies, catching them when I shot the strings holding them up. Emma used Boon's blade to slice through the silk, opening them up to let the people out. The first one immediately shot up once he was released, breathing quickly in a panic. "Dee!" He shouted, looking around before immediately scrambling for the other one, which we'd yet to uncover.

I put my hands on his shoulders, "Hey hey, settle down! You two are alright!"

"No, she's not!" He struggled, "Dee! DEE!"

I looked over to Emma, and she was already cutting Dee's web away. Inside was a limp girl who had her eyes shut, completely motionless. Emma shook her a few times but she didn't react, which was a terrible sign. She pressed her fingers to Dee's neck, checking her pulse.

My chest tightened when Em turned to look at me, slowly shaking her head. The male student inhaled sharply, tears forming in his eyes as he began sobbing. We did our best to comfort him while we led him out of the cave, me carrying the girl in my arms.

I never knew that girl. To me, she was a random, meaningless person who had no story behind her. I couldn't feel despondent, not like that boy could. He knew her personally, her personality, her likes, and dislikes, even small little facts about her mannerisms or ideas. It was like a light in his life were just suddenly snuffed out before him, never able to light back up. There was now a vast, looming darkness in his life, and no other light but hers could make it vanish.

Em did her best to comfort the distressed kid on our way out of there, but there wasn't anything that could be done about it. We ended up taking him along with us to the cliff, where we made our way up and out of the forest. We were the third or fourth pair, or trio, in this case, to make it back. Our little detour had cost us some time, not that it was a race to begin with. A couple of teachers pulled the student aside, probably to talk to him about what happened in the Blackstrider cave. Emma and I, meanwhile, celebrated with the other students in the dining hall of the school. Not that there wasn't much to be proud of, I knew for a fact we could have saved them both, if only we'd been faster. I felt like Emma felt the same way, but I also felt like she wasn't in the mood to talk about it. We drank our sodas, Emma did some chatting while I sat away from the crowd, and everyone had a good time. It was nice to forget about all the horrors of the world, or at least try to, for a second. It helped her anyway, so I was glad.

 **/-/**


	11. Chapter 11- Hail

/-/ Liam /-/

"Liam Brunswick, Emma Brunswick, Arin Rosewood, and Murphy Verner." The four of us stood side by side on the stage. There was just a little tiny bit of absolute disdain that was apparent between Emma and Arin. It felt like some joke if I'm perfectly honest. Those two got off on the wrong foot, which led to a fistfight on the first day. It'd be funny if only we didn't have to deal with this for the next four years, I could only hope they'd _somehow_ make nice at some point. Emma sure wasn't happy about it when she found out we got the same piece as him and Murphy, which was already more than enough to deal with, especially now. Who knows, maybe I'd get lucky and die today so I could get out of this.

"Each of you recovered the black king pieces. From this day forward, you will be working together as team BEAM, lead by Liam Brunswick." Ah, hell. It's not that I hated the idea of being the team leader, in fact, I was sure I could do it competently at least, it's just that I would have preferred the responsibility be given to somebody else. Then again, I was probably the most logical pick for a leader, given the circumstances. Not to judge by appearances, but Arin and Murphy seemed small-time, inexperienced. I knew Emma more than anybody in that room though so I could say with total certainty that she'd be too careful for it. I could see her hanging back far too long to get into combat, holding the team back while she over thought every little thing about the job and end up not getting in there fast enough. Her inaction would have gotten people killed; I was the more headstrong of the two of us. It's like Manny always said. Not deciding was its own decision, and it was the worst one you could make.

The ceremony went on for another couple of hours or so, and we were all given assigned dorm rooms as well as Scrolls for each of us which were like keys to the dorm rooms, as well as portable computing devices. Our dorm was just like everybody else; four beds, basic furniture like a desk and a fridge, etcetera. I threw my bags onto the bed on the far left, sitting down on the edge of it with a deep breath while the other three unpacked.

On our way to the dorm, I saw the boy me and Emma saved from the Blackstrider cave, the one whose friend died during the initiation. He was climbing into a Bullhead, a sullen, grieving look on his face which I'd expect from someone who just lost somebody close to them. I suppose he was heading home for that exact reason. He had figured before coming here, I think, that becoming a Huntsman would be safe _somehow_ , that it'd be a better alternative to what he had, whatever he had. When the girl, Dee, was killed in the initiation, he must have realized just what the hell he was getting into. I lived with an ex-Huntsman for thirteen years, and in that time I learned a lot about what that line of work is. It's not like it is in the movies and the comic books, people _die_ , whether it's because they gave their lives or because they were taken from them. It was something that had to be accepted. Some tragedy is just unavoidable.

I suppose that didn't matter anyway, not right then. I unpacked my things, folding my shirts and pants nicely and tucking them away in the closet, same as Murphy and Emma. Arin just dumped all his junk in the corner of the room and left immediately to go to the gym. Murphy went off to explore the campus, probably looking for girls, and Emma stayed in the dorm with me, grabbing her sketch pad and working on some art. I booted up a video on my Scroll, wanting nothing more than just to kill some time mindlessly. Emma spoke up after a few minutes.

"Do you think it could have been different?" She set her things down, looking over at me. I wasn't able to act like I didn't hear her, as I visibly froze when she asked.

"That what could have been different?"

"I don't know, everything I guess. Like us saving that girl, or..." Our parents not abandoning us. I knew that was what she was going to say, but she just didn't have the heart to say it. She always figured we just lost them, but I knew better. There was something way too deliberate about that day; it was set up for sure. And I'd be damned to hell if I wasn't going to get to the bottom of it.

"Yeah, maybe," I responded flatly, closing my Scroll. "A lot of things could've been different. We could have saved her; we could've not gotten sought out by Beacon, we could've not been abandoned by our lousy parents."

She furrowed her eyebrows at me, "Don't talk about mom and dad like that. You don't know anything about what happened."

"And you do?" I glared back at her, "You think we just up and lost them? That their precious babies got lost in the fucking woods, and they just forgot to call for a god damn search party, or anyone to come looking for us? Don't be naive, Em, they left us, and that's that. And you know what? I do think it could've been different, but it doesn't matter anymore. It's done, and we're better off without them." I took a second to catch my breath, my head cooling down just enough for me to see the stunned, offended look on Emma's face.

"..." She stood up, leaving her sketch pad. "I'm leaving." She started for the door, not responding when I tried to stop her. I leaned back against the wall, rubbing my eyes. I'd gone way too far; I knew that right after I said it. I guess I didn't know what happened back on that day, but I was just too riled up right then to realize what I was saying. I'd have to talk to her after we cooled off, but for now, I didn't want to overthink it. I lied my head down on the pillow, shutting my eyes for some well-deserved rest.

/-/ ? /-/

The armored car they had me locked up in was both cramped and uncomfortable. Two guards armed with stun batons were accompanying me, one seated on either side of me. They kept a sharp eye on me, probably just making sure I didn't bust through the chains around my wrists, ankles, and neck. It was pretty funny though when I stretched my back, and one of them flinched enough to spark his baton at me. They thought they had control of me with their weapons and their chains, but I was the one who had control of them. I didn't control them with direct force though; I controlled them with _fear_.

"Alrighty then, let's see here..." The suit-wearing lawyer that was sitting across from me, heaving a sigh, "Seven counts of domestic terrorism, eight recorded counts of first-degree murder, six counts of arson, four counts of grand theft," He shrugged, "And it just sorta goes on for a while from there. You've just about done it all, haven't you?" I didn't bother dignifying that with a response. "Alright, alright. Geez, tough crowd..." He cleared his throat, "Look, buddy, I'll just tell you like it is, you're pretty screwed. _Maybe_ I can squeeze a life imprisonment out of the judge, but honestly, it looks like death row more than anything. Honestly, I understand why you did all that other stuff, with the equality and the protests, but maybe blowing up that city bank was a bit far."

"And you think I regret it?" I glared at him, "Whatever happens to me, it'll be worth it. You human fucking scum, you're all the same, got it? If my people are not treated as equals in your eyes, we will beat you and crush you until we instead rise above you."

"Spoken like a true maniac." He wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. "Christ man, can't you just sit down and have a nice talk with the guy trying to save you? Like, just this once? Just talk about all your human-hating later or something, alright?"

Even inside, we could feel the van suddenly start slowing down to a stop. One of the guards knocked on the slider between us and the cab, barking at the driver. "Hey, what the hell are we stopping for?! We're already behind schedule!"

The slider opened, the driver looking back at us. "There's a wreck ahead of us. We have to back up." The car started moving in reverse for a second before stopping again, "What the hell-?!" He looked around in a panic, "We're getting boxed in!"

"What?!" The guard shouted, pulling his pistol off his hip and stepping over to the door. He looked over to the other guard, "Watch the prisoner, I'll take care of this!" He opened the back of the van, stepping out. He looked around for a few seconds before suddenly all hell broke loose, and gunshots started going off where I couldn't see.

"Oh my god!" The agent gasped, "Wh-what's happening out there?!" I couldn't help but laugh a bit at the coward's complete ignorance. "H-Hey, what are you laughing at? We're gonna die in here!"

"No..." I narrowed my eyes at him, "You are. Out there, slaughtering your weak guards and dismantling your pathetic convoy, are my brothers and sisters. The White Fang." The way his face turned white and his bones started shaking was extremely satisfying. "The fear in your eyes is obvious, coward. Know that they will not show mercy to the pathetic and weak, nor will they falter against the strong and foolish. In moments-"

"Hey, shut the hell up!" The guard sparked her baton at me, which I took exception to. I jerked right, swinging my chained arms at her and smashing into her upper body, stunning her. I grabbed her by the collar of her armored vest, slamming her into the wall behind me and ahead of me before flinging her to the open door of the van, where she toppled over and out. Four of my allies approached the car, apprehending her and aiming their rifles at the obnoxious mouthpiece.

"D-D-Don't shoot!" He kept his hands up as they forced him out, throwing him to the ground on his knees along with the remaining guards.

One of them approached me, a key in his hands. He unlocked my chains, which clattered to the floor in a heap. I rubbed my wrists, standing up and stepping out. "Who was responsible for this?"

"Ms. Kiselina, sir." The White Fang soldier to my right saluted me, "She received intelligence which told us where you were being taken and on what route, and so-"

"Tell her that all she's accomplished is wasting resources." I growled at her, "My mission was complete, I had exhausted my usefulness. Why would she squander time and men rescuing me?"

"A-All she said was that there was more work to be done, sir. We've brought your equipment for you as well, sir."

I sighed, rubbing my eyes. Mabel didn't do this purely for the good of the White Fang, knowing her she did it mostly for herself due to her obnoxious fixation on me. In any case, it would be a pure waste to refuse them at this point. I looked back to the soldier, who was holding her breath for my response. "Fine." I said bluntly, "I suppose I could continue my mission." At that, I started walking off before another soldier approached me.

He saluted me as well, "Sir, what of the remaining guardsmen?" I looked back over them. Six wounded guards, sitting on their knees alongside the cowardly attorney I was stuck with. Loose ends would spread the word of my escape rapidly through their radios and satellites. While there was no uncertainty that I could demolish any Human soldiers that came my way, I knew it'd be more practical first to find sanctuary and plan my moves carefully.

"No survivors," I commanded, stepping over to the car I would be using for my escape. Behind me, as I made my exit, screaming and gunfire commenced, cries for help drowned out by a White Fang firing squad. I didn't thoroughly enjoy the killing of the survivors, for I understood they were only following their orders. But their crimes against my people could not be merely forgiven because a corrupt government commanded them, the sins they committed could only be cleansed in a baptism of their blood.

I was saluted by my soldiers as I made it to the getaway vehicle. "Sir, your equipment is with us. You can have it all when we return to the hideout."

"That's fine by me." I stepped inside, "Let's just be on our way before the police arrive." And with that, we made our escape. The hideout awaited me now, in only an hour or so I would be reunited with my people, and I would lead them into the age of the Faunus. No more would the humans be above us. We _would_ destroy them, crush them into dust under our heels on our march to glorious triumph.

All hail, the White Fang.

 **/-/  
**


	12. Chapter 12: Change in Management

/-/ Murphy /-/

After a long walk around campus, I ended up in the gymnasium, where Arin stood, jabbing and swinging into a punching bag. I walked over to him and sat on the bench nearby, looking around for any cute looking girls before he stopped. "What's up, Murph?"

I took off my sunglasses, stashing them in my jacket. "I was just walking around campus, getting to know the place. Figured I'd swing by here last, thought I'd see what you were up to?"

He grabbed a towel off the bench I was sitting on, wiping his face and putting it around his shoulders. "Bag's yours if you want it."

"Thanks." I stood up, took the gloves he handed me, and took a few jabs at the bag once I had them on. "So what's the deal with this team stuff anyway? I mean it looks like we got shacked up with the wrong pair, right?"

"They won't get in my way." He squirted his water bottle into his mouth, swishing the water around before swallowing it. "I just hope that Bitchpants McCrabby won't start anything with me." I'd be lying if I said I knew anything about that fight, other than that they had an accident and blamed each other. I figured that was a talk for another time though, so I just kept on knocking the bag around, keeping up some idle conversation.

Pretty soon, it turned out we had a lot in common. We ended up talking for a couple of hours about music, cars, girls, and fighting. Arin was a cool guy once you got to know him, a little hotheaded but he was passionate too. There was a genuinely adoring look he had when he was talking about machinery or history; it was fascinating to listen to. He felt the same way about that stuff as I did about music and art. It was cool to get to know someone on a personal level like that.

We trained together for a good couple of hours or so, showing each other a few moves. Rather, Arin showing _me_ a few moves, seeing as I didn't have much to teach. My stuff was mostly intuition and strength, but with Arin's tricks, I'd at least have some finesse to match.

We were just about to leave when we noticed some students all flocking toward the nearby TV monitor. We figured we'd see all the commotion, our hearts profoundly shooting up into our throats when we saw what the fuss was.

Lisa Lavender had a grim expression as she read the teleprompter. "-Devastating. Thirteen undisclosed policemen and one attorney, who was recently identified as one Mr. Leon Pantone, were found dead following an attack by the notorious extremist group, the White Fang..." Her image was moved to the corner; the main shot being a camera pan over a city street with several body bags lined up in a row, a few different cars scattered around including an armored truck.

Lisa exhaled, "... S-Six of the officers were apparently captured, after the firefight. Based off of the crime scene, it appears as if they were, um, lined up and executed by a firing squad. An armored police truck, which was transferring a prisoner who was confirmed, um..." She swallowed, "Y-Yes confirmed to be one Caput Mortem, the infamous White Fang captain who was responsible for the bombing of the National Bank of Vale, which killed eight civilians and injured another ten." The screen showed the footage from those months ago, the building smoking with injured civilians being pulled out on gurneys. "The Vale Police Department has made no official statement regarding the incident."

A mugshot of the guy appeared on the screen. He had long dark red hair and yellow eyes. He had sharp features and a square jawline, and a tattoo of an hourglass on the right side of his neck. He had a face worth remembering, that was for sure.

"If you spot this man, please contact the authorities immediately. More on this at eleven..."

Everybody around us started mumbling and talking amongst each other, confused. Of course, we'd all heard of Caput Mortem, everybody had. He'd been arrested weeks ago though, maybe two months or so after the bombing. We thought he was on his way to being executed for what he did though, and he was, but the White Fang must have had different plans. The way they killed them too, lined up in front of a firing squad and shot like that. It was just hard to imagine, so many of them taken down so quickly.

"Geez, man." I stared wide-eyed at the screen, "Executed? Good lord, how could they do that to them?"

"I don't know..." Arin started to walk off, and I went to follow him, "They're just a bunch of psychos, fucked up in the head and burning down buildings and shit."

"Makes you wonder how they got like that, right? I mean, how could someone get that misguided?"

"Misguided? You don't shoot thirteen people in the head just because you're 'misguided.' That's murder, and it comes from an evil place, man."

He was right about that. Still, I don't believe that any of those Faunus would be doing any of that stuff if they weren't so injudicious, maybe. People aren't _born_ evil; they just become twisted through vice as their lives go on, molded into something terrible. That's what my mom, Kim, taught me anyway. Evil's learned, it's not ingrained in you from birth. People are basically good... right?

/-/ Caput /-/

We arrived at a hidden bunker just outside of Vale just when the sun was beginning to rise. I exited the car with the others, taking the black duffle bag that they handed to me which contained my equipment. I slung it over my shoulder as we entered through the steel door, a corridor leading to an elevator which went straight down for a few minutes. When the elevator doors opened, I was greeted by the sight of two rows of White Fang soldiers who stood alongside the door in a path that leads straight up to _her._

Mabel Kiselina, my second in command, stood at the end of the soldiers. She had her uniform on, though in my absence she had apparently made several modifications. Her midriff was exposed, her jacket having been cut shorter, and the sleeves removed. She'd replaced the standard trousers with a pair of black leggings, which she at least outfitted with white leather pads to protect herself. Her lime green hair cascaded down her back, her mask switched to one that was more similar to an old theatre mask, black and glittery with several intricate details. She stood at ease, unlike all of my other allies, who stood at attention. I walked past them, approaching her until I was close enough to communicate. "And _what_ exactly do you believe you're doing?"

"What?" She asked, acting innocent. "Don't appreciate the red carpet treatment? A thank you would be nice, you know."

I frowned at her. "What I don't appreciate is you devising my escape. Why wouldn't you just move on while I was captured, leave me to my fate?"

She rolled her eyes. "Enough of that 'noble sacrifice' stuff, alright? Besides, it's not like I did all this for no reason." She motioned for me to follow, and I did while the White Fang spread out and went back to their business. She spoke as we walked through the base, each of the soldiers once under my command swarming around like a beehive, performing the tasks assigned to them without one slacking.

"After you got locked up, I was assigned leader of this faction of White Fang to replace you. I gave myself a nice change of wardrobe, as you can see, and I kept us mostly on the down low while we recovered. Now, though, is not the time for staying hidden. Now's the time to come out and start making some messes again, especially now that most of our men have adapted to or accepted the change in management. I gave it a lot of thought before springing you out, you know. You're _exactly_ the man we need for what's coming up."

"So then what would that be?"

She smirked, "I'd hate to ruin the surprise."

I groaned, shaking my head. Of course, she was going to try and keep me in the dark on this one; she'd always wanted some power over me. "So, I assume you're relieving yourself of command, in that case?"

"Oh God no, what are you, kidding? I'm finally in charge around here, and since I busted you out, you're under my command now. No, I just got you because I wanted you to lead some of our forward operations, see. In fact, I have a few jobs lined out for you already~."

The fact that Mabel Kiselina was my commanding officer was intensely annoying. I almost could have considered going back and turning myself in. If I'm honest though, that really _would_ have made my liberation from the authorities utterly pointless. I would have been a selfish fool to waste the efforts and risk the lives of the brave men and women who went on that mission. I swallowed my pride and accepted my task.

The following night, we were set for a Dust pickup at the pier in town. Why we were now concerned with stealing Dust instead of striking the monsters that exploited and objectified my people was beyond me, but I was not one for asking questions. I allowed myself some rest that night, sleeping in the barracks alongside my fellow soldiers.

 **/-/**


	13. Chapter 13- Frozen

/-/ Emma /-/

Liam and I were both about five or six years old around the time we were separated from our parents in the woods. We had gone with them to go and gather some ingredients for a pie that mom was going to make, and somewhere along the way, we lost them. Of course, we didn't know the way back home since we were stupid little kids. We stuck together for two years alone, cold, and scared out of our minds. We managed somehow to survive, with the Grimm population being relatively low in those parts.

One night, it started raining like crazy, and we had to find somewhere to stay or we'd freeze to death. We had almost given up until we found a big, rickety old shack that looked like it had been abandoned for a couple of years or so. We couldn't get the door to budge, so Liam smashed a window open with a rock, and we crawled in through there.

It led into a small bedroom with a dark green cot in the corner of the room and a dresser next to it. We grabbed the scratchy, wool blanket off of it and huddled underneath for warmth, our teeth chattering and our limbs shaking like leaves.

We didn't get to relax long before the door was suddenly kicked open and a man barged in with an axe. We screamed, scared out of our minds thinking that he was going to kill us. He looked down at us, then to the window, then back at us, and I don't think I'll ever forget the first thing I heard that man ever say to us.

He paused for a while before he lowered his hatchet and choked up on the head of it in his hands, frowning at us. He pointed over to the window with the weapon's head. "You do that?" Liam held me tighter, nodding slowly. "Hmph... Were you planning on fixing it?"

"...Y-Yes sir..." Liam spoke quietly. We could tell he didn't believe us, judging by the expression on his face. He showed us some pity though, setting the hatchet down on the dresser next to him.

"...Then come on." He nodded his head out of the room, "You can't fix a window on an empty stomach."

/-/

"You know that I didn't mean it, right?" Liam stood in front of me in the hallway, his bag slung over his shoulder and his uniform cleanly pressed. I immediately understood what he was talking about because Liam rarely ever directly approached anybody for anything that had to do with any conversation, including with me. Also because I still vividly remembered what he had said, even a few days after the fact.

I didn't immediately respond when he asked me that, taking a few seconds to decide my answer. He sighed, "I don't really know what happened then, you're right. It's just... Look, I just can't believe that there wasn't anything at play that day. Maybe it _wasn't_ their fault, maybe it was, but either way, I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. I-"

I cut him off right there. "You didn't jump to anything," I told him flatly. "You obviously put a lot of thought into what you said."

"Hmm... Maybe I did." He rubbed his chin contemplatively. "But you didn't exactly let me finish."

"My problem isn't what you said, Liam." I sighed, waiting a few seconds for him to talk, though it was pretty obvious he was too confused to know what I meant. "It's that I know you were honest. I'm not an idiot, you know. You think I haven't thought about that day? You think I haven't thought about that every god damn night since it happened, staying up all night and wondering what happened or why? The difference being I had a shred of hope left; a hint of the possibility that we weren't abandoned like a couple of defenseless puppies. The shitty part is I think you might be _right._ " I visibly began to shake, I didn't feel it, but I could tell by the way Liam was looking at me that I was starting to fall apart. "Maybe we meant _nothing_ to them, and we'll never see them again. We don't know if they regret it, if they're looking for us, or if they're even alive. But I held onto the idea that they were good people." I slammed my locker shut, grabbing my bag off of the floor and marching past him in a huff. "You clearly didn't even bother."

/-/ Murphy /-/

A few days along the line, we all went out into town for some 'team building' assignment from Mr. Amaranth, the school's guidance counselor. He sent out a message to each of the teams to do an activity together as a group and message him back about it, which he would, in turn, inform Headmaster Ozpin about, and we'd all get some sort of credit. It was safe to say that either only just a few teams did it, or most of them didn't go to the city for their trip. We walked down the street, not saying much except for the occasionally failed icebreaker, which was mostly by me. Arin and Emma would make a snide remark at each other from time to time, but luckily there wasn't a fist fight this time around.

"So what is it we're doing again?" Arin said. "Nobody's really been pitching any ideas for 'group activities.' Hell, why don't we just _say_ we did it, and then head back home?"

"Because this is important." Liam gave him an icy look, "It's been weeks already, and we've barely made any progress as a team. I agreed to this because it actually might be able to get us working together better."

"That, and the extra credit doesn't hurt," I added. "Plus, I know a good place, just a couple blocks off from here. You guys like ice cream, right?"

"Seriously?" Emma shot up a brow at me, "What are you, eight?"

"And a half!" I said back, patting her on the shoulder. "Come on. It won't kill you, will it? It's a perfect place, and they'll give you whatever the heck many toppings you want, it'll be a blast."

"Well, I certainly don't have any better ideas." Liam shrugged. "Any objections?" No response. "Alright then, ice cream it is. Lead the way, Murph."

/-/

The streets were dark, lit only by the numerous streetlights as we made our way back from our team outing. That ice cream was dang good, though maybe the three different candy toppings I got was a bit much. But hey, after a month of hard work, one little (or, not so little,) helping of frozen heaven was a just reward. I think that trip to Sunny Daes really did brighten everybody's spirits, at least somewhat. Some tension was still there, but it was at least momentarily lifted by the treats and was now much lighter as a result.

"That wasn't half bad, Murph." Liam nodded with his hands in his pockets as we continued on our long walk back to campus. Few people were on the streets as we chugged along, each with our weapons holstered for safety reasons. Some people thought it was a bit uncomfortable for teenagers to be open-carrying guns larger than their freaking heads down the street like it was nothing, but I thought it was a gentle reminder to all the crooks out there that not everyone was helpless, and that they should really watch their backs.

"I do my best to impress," I replied, sipping up the last of my shake and tossing the paper container into the nearby trashcan.

Arin's eyes darted over to his left, glaring down a long and dark alleyway that I presumed was filled with nothing but litter and something that reeked awfully. I looked back at him, noticing the look he had. "Hey, what's up?" I asked him as I approached, staring down the very same passageway, only to be met by pitch black nothingness. "Come on man; it's late. We should be going."

He shook his head, "No, wait a minute. I heard something." I looked around the street and then back down the alley, squinting hard, looking for whatever he was hearing. "It's coming from over there."

"What is?" Liam came up behind us, looking into the alley as well. Arin closed his eyes, listening carefully to whatever the heck it was over there.

He opened his eyes back up after a few moments, quickly drawing his pistols from his hips and sprinting down the alleyway before Liam or I could stop him. Liam cursed, and we chased after our Faunus companion, Emma following with an annoyed scowl.

When we finally caught up with him, we were on an overlooking ledge with a metal staircase going down the side, and had a birds' eye view of the harbor. A big, white and red freighter had been loading up big shipping containers and storage crates onto the deck. Looking closely at the floor, though, we started to get a clearer picture of why Arin ran ahead. Several Faunus, man, and woman alike, were wearing white coats with black jumpsuits underneath, along with black hoods and silver masks that covered the top portion of their faces. There was no doubt about it among any of us.

We were looking at some trouble.

 **/-/**


	14. Chapter 14- Dust to Dust

/-/ Liam /-/

We all kept low behind the metal railing, looking down at the docks at the several different White Fang that were moving crates, and one operating a forklift. There were about twelve or so on the docks, and who knows how many on that freighter. "What the heck is this?" Murphy whispered, "White Fang, in Vale? That's insane!"

"And what's in those crates, anyway?" Emma whispered back, "Must be something valuable to them to risk this."

"Whatever it is," I sighed, "We should turn back. There are way too many of those guys, so if we tried to stop them ourselves, we'd just end up dead." I looked back into the alleyway, thinking. "I say we sneak away and call the police."

"What?!" Arin whisper-yelled, "Are you serious? What do you think we've been training for a month for, just to sit around while the bad guys do whatever they want?"

"Arin, for just once can you not screw everything up?" Emma sneered at him, "If you want to go down there and get your head blown off that's fine by me, but we _aren't_ going with you!"

"Quiet, both of you." I said, "We're leaving. That's it."

Murphy and Emma nodded, and the three of us stayed low as we quietly started moving back.

When I looked back to see if we were spotted, I saw Arin vaulting over the railing, jumping onto a shipping container. I moved back over to the barrier along with Murph and Emma, and we all watched as he dropped off the large box onto another, and then down to the concrete with a well-executed roll. I cursed under my breath and drew Titan's Razor, hurrying down the nearby stairs as quickly as I could. Em jumped over the railing as well, going to chase him directly, and Murphy followed me. By the time we reached the bottom of the steps, Arin was halfway across the shipyard already.

He managed to sneak past three different White Fang, moving up quietly behind the fourth one and putting his arms around his neck, pulling him back into the shadows. I'd be impressed if it weren't for the sheer audacity he had not just to go against my orders, but to put himself and the rest of us in immediate danger. Emma swung Scholar's Boon at the head of one of them, striking them across the face with the shaft and knocking them to the floor, too dazed to move.

Murphy and I moved past the other two, Emma coming up behind us as well. By then, Arin was climbing up a rope that was going down the side of the ship, the ramp leading up to the deck far too open to use. At this point, I was signing up for a suicide mission, but I'd have been damned if I was going to let Arin get kidnapped or killed under my leadership. I ran over to one of the shipping containers as the crane was picking it up, grabbing onto the side of it as it was rose up alongside the ship, and then lowered onto the deck of the freighter.

A pair of White Fang walked up to the container as it was set down, and I moved to the other side so they wouldn't spot me. They opened it up, presumably to inspect the contents or find any stowaways. Moving up slowly behind them was a big, _big_ guy, wearing a silver mask over his mouth and nose. My heart shot into my throat when I recognized who it was.

"Is the cargo damaged at all?" Caput said in a low, commanding voice. After years of working as a mercenary with Emma, I knew that some things that got you far in the business were a harsh look, a commanding voice, and a good reputation. He certainly had all of those things in a neat package, for sure. He had a hooded white duster coat, both of his arms exposed with the White Fang insignia tattooed on his right bicep. Kind of like Murphy, he was wearing metal armor, but his looked professionally made, unlike Murphy's 'custom build.' His eyes were yellow, and he had a tattoo of an hourglass on his neck, as well as a checkerboard pattern tattooed on his left forearm.

Something like a crate being pried open, and then I heard a case opening inside, clasps unlatching were audible. "Hmm," One of them hummed, "No cracks, spillage, or short supplying. Looks like everything we need."

"Good," Caput sighed, "Yes, good to hear. Close that case back up and get back on the lookout. We can't be too sure we aren't being observed."

"Yes, sir." The Faunus saluted him, and he and the other one went away at that. Caput walked off a different way with his hands clasped behind his back.

When I was sure nobody would see, I snuck around to the front of the container, moving inside to see what was inside. Wooden crates, mostly, with one near the front that was pried open. A silver case sat on top of it, and I opened it up to see an assortment of Dust vials. Fire, Wind, Lightning, even some of that rare Gravity dust was inside.

Crystals, cartridges, and bottles were in the crate, as well as all the other boxes I would imagine, which suddenly started making me realize just how big of an operation we'd stumbled upon. If the White Fang was loading up this much Dust, especially with Caput Mortem in the picture now, they must've been planning something pretty huge. I'd wager a guess that it was going to be a big attack, possibly an all-out declaration of war. But whatever the case was, I had to get off of that freighter, and so did Arin. I pulled out my Scroll, snapping a few pictures of the crates and containers, along with the dust of course.

"Hey, stop!" Someone yelled behind me, and I turn to see a White Fang soldier aiming his pistol at me. He stepped toward me slowly as I raised my hands in surrender. "You're not allowed on here, kid." He frowned, "Now I gotta take you to the boss and -" I interrupted him once he was close up to me, bringing my hands down on his pistol and moving to the side so that the shot he fired would miss me and hit the floor. Luckily the bullet didn't ricochet into the Dust; otherwise, we'd both be dead meat. I swung for his face, striking him hard across the eye, and then again with the other hand.

He blocked my third strike, swinging right back at me. I ducked down underneath, raising my knee up into his solar plexus to knock the wind out of his lungs, after which another few solid punches took him straight to the floor. When you're a merc for hire, you tend to get a lot of guns pointed at you by some nasty people, so it's always good not to panic and to have a way of getting out of it. Emma's was usually talking her way out; mine was mopping the floor with the guy. We had a good dynamic like that.

However, that gunshot in the echoing chamber turned a few different heads my way, and it didn't help that all of those heads were holding automatic rifles in their hands and really, _really_ hated humans. I drew Razor, ducking behind a trio of steel barrels as a hail of gunfire was sprayed in my direction. They were all naturally careful not to hit the crates, even though there were separate cases that held the various Dust items.

I'm sure they were all just as paranoid about setting off a giant explosion as I was. If one went off, it could set off a massive chain that, while stopping the White Fang operation right then and there, would also kill my team and me just as quickly. Not only that, but I had a sneaking suspicion that this wasn't the only group doing something like this, so killing myself for the sake of sinking this ship would only result in the White Fang getting _less_ Dust then they would otherwise, which I doubt would have hurt them far too much to matter.

They shot with efficient intervals; at least one of them was always firing at any given time while they all advanced on me. It was a strategy I couldn't beat, even with the possibility of my Semblance going off for once. I was considering using my underpants for a makeshift white flag when Arin jumped down behind them from his perch on a container, swinging his hook and chain around the ankle of one of the assailants and yanking hard, tripping him to fall flat on his face. The others each turned around to face him, and that's when I stood out of my cover to give Arin some supporting fire to keep their attention split between him and me, giving us a major leg up in the firefight.

/-/ Arin /-/

I dashed up right underneath the rifle barrel of one of the goons, uppercutting him square in the jaw and moving behind him quickly. I reached back while he was behind me facing away, pressing my palm into his face and levering it down harshly. I pushed my foot back behind his ankle, tripping him over it so I could shift his weight to slam him down on the floor, knocking his head against it hard.

I gripped my Gang Chainz and turned my attention to a girl that was shooting at Liam, swinging the hook over my head and wrapping the chain nicely around her gun. I yanked it straight out of the chick's hand, using a remote trigger to bring the hammer down on the pistol integrated into the hook to give it some extra kick. The rifle nearly flew out of her grasp, and I spun around to fling it right back into her head. She stumbled back when the gun that she was using not just a second ago was suddenly bashing her in the jaw, and I used this opportunity to run and jump-kick her in the center of the chest, which is a universally badass way of dropping someone.

After that got squared away, Liam was shooting up the last guy, his Aura protecting him but still probably hurting like all hell. I followed up on that with a solid kick to the face after he fell to the floor, and just like that, we were free of assholes trying to kill us.

Murphy and The Bitch ran up the ramp onto the deck, which I figured meant that they either somehow snuck past those other mooks, or they fought their way through. The look on their faces told me pretty quickly though that the latter was correct, as well as the fist that was slammed firmly into my cheek by Emma, the sucker punch enough to knock me down on my ass. It was good for me that Liam kept her pushed back away from me or things would've gotten real violent between us quickly.

"You stupid son of a bitch!" She shouted at me while I got back up on my feet, "Was that stunt worth nearly getting all of us killed?!"

"I have no idea what you're bitching about!" I shouted back, "Are you saying you'd rather let these guys get away scot-free?"

"I'd _rather_ have let someone more qualified deal with this!"

"There is _nobody_ more qualified for ass kicking than me!"

"Do you believe your own hype that much?" Murphy asked.

"I _am_ the hype!"

"That's enough!" Liam raised his voice, looking at us, "All of you!" I was expecting him to chew me out like everybody else of course but found myself pleasantly surprised for once. "What Arin did was stupid, but it was more valuable than you think." He pointed over to the container he was in just a few minutes ago, "These containers are loaded with thirty-one flavors of Dust; vials, crystals, cartridges. These guys were gearing up for something serious, so it's a good thing we came when we did. They'd probably be long gone otherwise."

I would've smiled, but... "But that doesn't mean I'm not disappointed in Arin for jumping into this without thinking ahead. We'll talk about this later." While the grilling was short, it was still pretty handily bringing me down from my twenty-second high of being right for a change.

A big metal door opened up on the deck, and past all the shipping containers and stuff, we saw a huge-ass dude with a silver mask over his mouth step out, shotgun in hand.

It looked like it was time for the boss.


	15. Chapter 15- Hail Pt 2

/-/ Emma /-/

Caput Mortem stepped toward us at a casual pace; his big black shotgun brandished at ease. If I had known _he_ was on this ship, I never would have tried to convince the others into falling back and leaving Arin to suffer the consequences of his utter retardation. His eyes set on each of us one at a time like he was studying us individually. He looked down at his men, which we had mostly dispatched. "Pathetic." He said in a low, gravelly voice. "To think my people could be so easily subdued by a group of novices such as you."

Arin smirked, his shit-eating grin sure to get us killed. "What? You pissed off because we just wiped the floor with your guys? Maybe you should just give up before we hand your ass to you too!"

He seemed about as unamused by the Faunus as I was. "I'm hardly intimidated enough to consider surrender. However, I must give you credit. It must have taken considerable gall to dare engage us when you were so outnumbered, as well as some degree of skill to not have been slaughtered by now. That being said," he pumped his shotgun, causing a loud and metallic noise from it. "I can't let you leave this place alive."

"Bullcrap!" Arin spat on the floor, "I've taken on bigger _and_ tougher than you! Get some!" He drew his Gang Chainz, sprinting toward Caput with great haste before any of us could try and stop him.

Caput moved so fast I almost didn't see him even flinch. The back of his fist struck Arin's skull so hard I felt like I could almost feel it myself. His blow had enough force in it to physically lift Arin off of his feet, sending him through the air down the deck back toward us. He used his semblance to air dash slightly upward and toward him, using it to land back on his feet and avoid colliding with any of us. Even that hard hit wasn't enough to deter him, which was evident when he raised his pistol and fired four times at him.

In a usual case, when you see someone with an Aegis Aura get struck with a bullet, they'd react as the force acted upon them (similar to someone wearing a bullet-proof vest getting shot in the chest). Caput Mortem hardly even _flinched_ in reaction to Arin's shots, as if he was only firing off blanks. He raised his shotgun at Arin, sighing in annoyance as he pulled the trigger.

Murphy jumped in the way of the buckshot, taking the whole force of the blast so Arin didn't get ripped apart, him having Panacea Aura like me, and as such not being equipped to defend against a shotgun shell as Murphy was. It knocked him down on his back, his Aura keeping him alive through the hit. Caput pumped again, Arin rolling out of the way of another prompt shredding from his shotgun pellets.

While Arin continued avoiding Caput's attacks with Liam's help, I ran over to Murphy and pulled out my Scroll. Every Scroll had a program on it that would gage the Aura levels of your team, using linked accounts on the program to share the readings with each teammate. I nearly swallowed my tongue when I saw that that one shot alone depleted Murphy's Aura by two thirds already. Another one would have likely killed him, and thoroughly shredded Arin.

No other options left, I set the scroll down on the deck and laid my hands on Murphy's chest to feed him some of my Aura. Those with Panacea Auras such as me could drain it to replenish or repair the Aura of another person, most typically an Aegis, like Murphy. That was pretty much the one benefit to having such a non-protective Aura.

I gave him just enough so that only one-third of Murphy's Aura was depleted, not wanting to leave myself without a healing factor. While Murphy caught his breath, I loaded a cartridge of Fire Dust into Scholar's Boon and ran to the aid of Liam and Arin.

/-/ Caput /-/

The interlopers stood no chance; I knew that from the very instant I laid eyes on them. The Faunus was quick and could connect several hits in a short amount of time, but he was also flippant, and arrogant. He assumed due to my large size that I would be unable to match his speed, but he found himself completely outmatched at my ability to not only stop each of his attacks from coming through but also deliver my own back to him with little difficulty.

He leaped into the air, bringing his hooks down onto me with a widely telegraphed front flip. I lifted the steel bracer on my arm and caught the blow, raising my other arm just as quickly and ramming it into his stomach. He took the hit directly in the chest, the mass of my fist throwing him onto his back in a curled heap.

The leader was much more cunning, however. Every attack he made had a purpose to it, and he would wait for me to make my move first before delivering a decisive counterattack. He could not penetrate my Aura, however, and as such his efforts to harm me proved fruitless. I was not quite as capable of dispatching him with as much ease as the Faunus; however, it was still a relatively simple task.

He swung his large sword horizontally toward my head, an attack which I easily evaded. I advanced on him after coming up from the attack, raising my leg up behind his to swipe his foot out from under him. As his legs were forcibly brought out from underneath his body and into the air, I brought down my fist onto the center of his face.

The force had a considerable enough blow to it that it slammed him into the steel deck and bounce him off of it, similar to a rubber ball. I raised my knee as he ricocheted off of the floor, striking him in the center of the back and kicking him slightly higher into the air. I spun on my heel, delivering a side-kick that would hit him in the hip, sending him tumbling toward his other companions.

The tall one stood up off of the ground, the one that I had only recently blasted with buckshot. He pulled out a guitar with sharp blades on the sides of the body, charging at me as he raised it like an axe. He swung it downward at me, the edge sparking off against the metal of the flooring beneath me after I moved away from the attack. I raised my foot and kicked him in the jaw, following up with an elbow to the sternum while he recoiled from the previous hit and toppling him over.

He was resilient enough not to be defeated that easily, climbing back up to his feet and dropping his guitar. He raised his fists and swung an obvious haymaker at me, which I handily caught with my elbow. He attacked again, and I blocked again, and again, and yet again, invariably stopping his sloppy punches from getting through. I reared my head back and headbutted him straight in the face, forcing him to take a few steps back. I capitalized with a short hop and a dropkick into his chest, flinging him right back to where he started at me from.

I jumped back onto my feet and brandished my shotgun yet again, leveling the barrel at the girl. Just before I squeezed the trigger and ended the Human's miserable existence, a thick cloud of steam erupted from the blade of her pole weapon, and my vision was obscured to the point where I couldn't even make out simple shapes and figures even with my superior eyesight. I searched for them with my weapon raised, slowly stepping through with my guard up. If they were anything like me- though so far they were not-, they would be preparing for a surprise attack. I bided my time, waiting for them to make their move.

/-/ Liam /-/

Everything was aching from where Caput had hit me, my Aura having taken some serious damage. The mist surrounded the whole deck and made it hard to see five feet ahead of me. I slowly pulled myself up off of the floor, picking up Titan's Razor and hobbling over to some supply crates to get behind. I ejected the magazine and loaded in a new clip of shock Dust hollow points, peeking around the corner of the wooden boxes to see if I could see the hulking terrorist through the shroud.

In the thick of the mist, I heard gunshots, shouting, and the clashing of steel. Arin and Murphy must have been putting up one hell of a fight, or at least the best that they can do in the shroud against such a tough opponent. At the very least, they were keeping him busy until my ears stopped ringing.

A hand placed itself on my shoulder, and I spun around with my rifle raised, only to see the sleek, pale figure of my twin sister instead of the notorious criminal. I exhaled, and she whispered to me. "We need to get out of here; this guy's going to kill us."

"I don't know," I pinched the bridge of my nose, mostly making sure it wasn't broken or anything, which it thankfully wasn't. "This guy's tough, but I think we have a chance. What's your Aura looking like?"

She pulled out her scroll. "After helping Murphy, about 62 percent."

"That should be just enough. Think you can overclock me?"

Her eyebrows shot up at that. "Are you serious? You want to go back in there after that guy?"

"We don't have a choice; we can't let this guy go with all this Dust."

She looked down for several seconds, thinking. "Hm, damn it." She nodded, "Okay, okay. I can only give you enough for about thirty seconds though. If my Aura dips too low, I'll be more vulnerable than ever."

"I can keep him away from you in that time, just overclock me for a few seconds and make a dash for the ramp. Do you know where Arin and Murphy are?"

"Not exactly, but I'm sure they haven't run yet. Arin's too vain for that and Murphy's too loyal for that."

I nodded, "That's good. Clear the mist with some wind Dust and give me a boost, I'll keep him preoccupied for as long as I can so you three can get out of here."

"And how will you get away?"

I racked the bolt on my rifle, exhaling. "Hopefully with Caput in handcuffs. Let's go."

/-/

I got into position at the nose of the cargo ship, taking a knee and looking down the sight of my rifle. Emma was nearer the ramp, with Caput somewhere in the middle of the shroud looking for us. "Now!" I shouted, signaling my sister. Within a few seconds, a faint glow surrounded me, and I was feeling a lot less sore from the beating.

A massive gust of wind blew across the deck of the freighter like we were in a wind tunnel, the steam clearing up not too long after. Caput was right there, in what was once the thick of the cloak, glaring stone cold daggers right in my direction. Arin was lying on the floor some feet behind him; Murphy was clutching his ribs and leaning against the side of a shipping container. He set his sights for me while Emma helped them over to the ramp, having to sling Arin over her shoulders to haul him out physically.

Caput wasted no time leveling his shotgun at me and squeezing the trigger, a spray of buckshot being launched in my direction. Thanks to Emma's Overclock, I finally had the one thing I didn't have before. The one thing that would be the difference between me getting killed and me getting us all out of here. I raised my arm, and a barrier of Aura formed between me and the pellets, shielding me from the blast. I dissipated it, leveling my rifle at him.

The barrel shined a bright green, and I held the trigger tightly. My whole magazine shot at him, this time with an added punch that caused him to flinch and stagger at each shot, which burst with violent sparks from the primed Dust rounds. He grunted, apparently shocked at the sudden effectiveness of my shots. I sprinted at him at twice my average speed while he was gathering himself once my gun started clicking, taking a swing at him with my sword.

The blade shined just like the barrel had, and Caput ducked underneath the swing to avoid it, now aware of what was going on. My Semblance was Aura Manipulation, but without Emma's Semblance, I wouldn't have been able to use it against him. It gives me the power to control my Aura to shape it to my needs, which can make for stronger attacks, physical barriers, or even its own projectile. Everything I do with it drains my Aura levels though, which meant that combined with the limited duration of Emma's semblance, I had little time to beat Caput.

He swung his arm at me, which I was handily able to avoid and follow up with a kick to his ribs. Just as my weapon had, as well as any attack of this vain would, my foreleg shined in my signature colors. It collided with the side of his torso, Caput wincing and stumbling back.

He growled and grumbled at me, going to strike me with the butt of his shotgun. I raised my sword, swinging straight up with it in retaliation. The Aura heated the blade to a high enough degree to split his weapon cleanly in half; the sliced ends a searing hot red.

He flung the useless metal to the side, elbowing me harshly in the side of the head. My vision blurred at the hit, and he used the opportunity to crouch down and grab me by the shirt. He raised me up with one arm, flinging me over his back about ten feet or so. My body slammed against the metal surface of the cargo ship, and I rolled back onto my feet.

I reached my hand back like I was pitching a baseball, a small condensed orb of my Aura forming in my hands. I flung it directly at his chest, aiming for his sternum. He rolled to the side, the ball smashing into the side of a container and leaving a considerable dent in the metal. The glow from Emma's Semblance around me was starting to dim. I was quickly running out of time now, and I could feel my Aura level dropping rapidly.

He charged me again, raising his fist up to bring it down upon me. I stepped back from it, the impact leaving an imprint on the deck, and he followed up with a stern uppercut that hit me in the jaw and knocked me off my feet.

I fell onto my back, rolling on my side to avoid the unforgiving stomp that damaged the flooring where I once was. I stood back up, rearing back my fist and sending a right hook straight to Caput's jaw. The hit connected, my Aura-charged punch sending him spinning and stumbling back.

He dropped to one knee facing away from me, his mask flying off of his face after the significant blow I just landed and clattering against the floor. My Aura was nearly depleted, I had no chance of bringing him in now. Now was my chance to run, while he was stunned from the massive hit. I made a break for the ramp, beating feet past the bulky man.

I was at the top of the ramp and about to run down when suddenly I felt my ankle get constricted, followed by a massive pull that tripped me and forced me to fall flat on my face. I turned around to see Caput with his hand which was prominent as a Beringel's and just as calloused. He grabbed me by my throat, crushing the life out of me and glaring straight into my eyes.

His eyes were bright yellow; his face was coarse like sandpaper, and his dark red hair cascaded down from his hood like a waterfall of blood. The worst feature of all, however, was the hideous, sharp-toothed maw where his mouth would be. It was like he was some snaggletooth demon, his razor-sharp, yellow teeth even excluding a set of Human lips, from what I could see. My blood ran cold when he started to open it as if he was going to bite my head right off of my shoulders.

My fight or flight instincts kicked in, and I started socking and wailing on him with my fists until he raised his hand, striking me across the eye so hard I felt my brain rattling in my skull. I lifted my legs up and planted my feet against his chest, using the very last bit of Aura I had left in my broken and beaten body to give him the big push I needed to shove him off. He fell back onto his behind, Arin and Murphy shooting their weapons at him to keep him at bay while I crawled frantically back to dry land.

Murphy grabbed me by the back of my shirt to drag me away while I fired at the top of the ramp with a newly loaded magazine, screaming so hard I tore up my vocal cords. We got out of there just in time for when more White Fang soldiers started coming out of the woodwork, firing at us as we made our way out of there along the road, Murphy having to pick me up and carry me out of there so we could move as fast as possible. I looked back at the ship as the White Fang ceased fire. Caput stood up slowly, putting his mask back on over his putrid, horrible face. The loading ramp drew back into the ship, which started to sail off.

I blacked out.

 **/-/**


	16. Chapter 16- Conspiracies

/-/ Liam /-/

I woke up probably a few hours later in a daze. My vision was still blurry, and my head felt like a watermelon in a hydraulic press. When I could finally see more than just flashing lights and colors, it was revealed to me that we were just a block or two away from the docks where we had just encountered the White Fang, and Caput Mortem. Arin and Murphy sat next to each other on the curb, Emma was describing the incident to the police, and a paramedic was shining a light in my eyes and making sure I didn't have a concussion or anything.

"We had to run away when Caput showed up," Emma said, handing the officers my Scroll, which I only then noticed was missing from my seat pocket. "But my brother got some pictures of the cargo. We think they were stealing a whole lot of Dust for maybe some kind of attack."

The officers nodded, one of them shutting the notebook they were writing her testimony in. A few White Fang were being loaded into some police cars, some of them from the docks that must have been left behind when the ship sailed off. One of them put their foot on the car, pushing back to keep from being shoved in.

The maniac shouted, "Human scum! You can fight all you want, but you won't keep us silent any longer! The White Fang will bring a new world order, and rise to our rightful place as the dominant race! Flee screaming in terror when the day of reckoning comes, and only then may we consider-"

"Yeah yeah, shut up already." One of the officers roughly grabbed him, throwing him into the car and shutting it.

I started getting up to my feet, and the medic set her hands on my shoulders. "Try not to move too much; you look seriously hurt."

"I'm fine," I told her, pinching the bridge of my nose. I groaned, looking around some more before Emma came over, the officers walking off to start questioning our other two teammates. "Everyone alright?"

"Amazingly enough, yeah." Emma sighed, "Nearly got ourselves killed though, we're lucky you were able to keep Caput busy for so long. Otherwise, we'd all be six feet under by now."

I thought about that for a few seconds before exhaling. "Don't be stupid, Em." She gave me a confused look. "What, it wasn't obvious? He could've torn me apart if he wanted to, easily. He was toying with us, like some kind of... Ugh." I leaned against the brick building behind me for some support.

"That doesn't make sense though." Emma said, "Why would he let us go, but allegedly order all those guards to be executed...?"

"Because we weren't a problem like they were," I said, rubbing my temples and exhaling. "He's not dumb, that obviously wasn't the only ship that was loading Dust. Even if we did somehow stop him, he'd still make off clean with loads more." I rubbed my eyes, blinking a few times. "And besides, he wants people to get scared. He lets us go to tell the tale, a lot of people hear it and start panicking."

Emma crossed her arms, about to say something before a detective approached us, smoking a pipe. "Which is why we have to keep this incident under wraps." He pulled his badge out, presenting it to us. "Scarlet Combs, VPD*. I understand you kids have been through a lot, and we thank you for what you've done, but we're taking it from here."

"What?" Emma looked at him surprised. "The people should know about this, we know he's planning something!"

"There's _always_ a White Fang plot," He said, keeping a cool composure, "Or an oncoming Grimm horde, or some computer hacker with too much free time trying to leak people's private info. What keeps these people going on with their lives happily," He pointed at the passing civilians, who were either minding their own business or being moved along by cops trying to keep them from lingering too much, "Is that _they. Don't. Know about it."_ Combs reached into his trench coat, pulling out my scroll and handing it over to me. "Here, we went ahead and downloaded the photos into our database, but they aren't on your scroll anymore."

"So that's it?" Arin cut in, limping over with a fire in his eyes, "You're just gonna pull the wool over everybody's eyes and act like everything's hunky fucking dory? All that's going to happen with nobody knowing is that there'll be more unsuspecting victims when Caput Mortem decides to blow up another building!"

"I get that you're upset, I do." Combs said, putting his badge away and plucking the pipe from his mouth, "But a mass panic would be the worst thing for the situation right now. Now if you could please clear out, we have to block off this area for further investigation."

Murphy came over, standing between the cop and Arin and ushering the fuming Faunus back, away from the scene. "It's not worth it man, let's go. Come on."

They started setting up the police tape and marking evidence as we all walked away, and as we started making our way back to Beacon, I thought about everything that was happening. Hotheaded and dim-witted as he usually was, Arin was right. If nobody knows what's going on, nobody will be able to take action to stay safe. Still, though, the panic would be a lot to deal with, so I understand Combs intentions, even if I don't agree with them.

At this point, even Emma was too tired to yell at Arin about how stupid he was acting or say anything as she flung herself onto her bed with a deep, exhausted exhale. I did the same, and Murphy sat down at the desk while Arin took a spot on the floor. We all sat in silence for maybe a few minutes before Arin slammed his fist on the side of the desk.

"Fuck this!" Arin said, standing up with a sudden burst of energy. "This is bullcrap dude! What are we even doing right now?!"

Emma huffed. "Resting up after _you_ dragged us into a fight we couldn't win, numbnuts."

"That's not what I'm talking about." Arin said, "Look, I'm sorry, alright? I didn't want those assholes making off clean with all that Dust; I just wanted to try and do something about it is all." He got a serious look on his face, "But don't you sit there and look at me, telling me this shit's not fucked up!"

"There's nothing we can do, Arin." Murphy rubbed his temples, his Scroll sitting on the desk as he had been filling out our activity form. "The police will handle it; it's out of our hands now."

"Out of our..." Arin raised his arms in frustration, "Oh don't give me that shit! We're _badasses!_ Kicking bad guy's dicks in is what we're supposed to do! And we're just all sitting here jerking off while Killer Croc's planning whatever the hell he's planning!"

"So we're just gonna mosey on over to their hideout," Emma said, "Which we don't even know where that is, by the way, and go in guns blazing and throwing our lives away for no reason? We have to play this smart, Arin, and I'd rather not have to bury any of you idiots."

"I'm not saying anything about a direct attack or whatever." Arin paced the room, "But I _am_ saying that I want to bring that asshole down a few pegs, and not just act like nothing happened and we didn't already nearly take him down!"

"He was too strong for us Arin," I said, finally. "There wasn't a chance we were ever going to take that guy down, not like we are now."

"See?" Emma said, gesturing to me, "You're the only one who's dumb enough to-"

"But I think you're right." I stood up, Emma and Murphy giving me surprised looks. "It's not right, trying to keep this entire thing quiet and putting more people in danger of future attacks. We could do something, we _can_ do something, but I don't want to take any unnecessary risks. If we're doing this," I looked at Emma and Murphy, who had their eyes on me still, "And yeah, we _can_ do this, then we're going to need to prepare for next time. Let's rest up for now, and then we can get some training done."

I sat back down, and Arin sat back down as well, taking off his oil-stained gloves and running his hands through his hair. Murphy spoke up. "Mugger." We all gave him a confused look before he repeated himself. "Mugger, it was the name on the side of the boat that they used. I could maybe do a few searches; see if I can't find it anywhere or something."

I nodded to him. "That's a good start. Maybe we can use that to find out where their hideout is. We can't do it with just us alone though, if we're planning anything against them, we need some backup."

"Maybe send Arin to make some friends." Emma said in a sarcastic tone, "He's just such a swell and charismatic guy."

"Maybe send Emma to get something done about her tiny tits, too," Arin said back, Emma nearly jumping straight out of bed and snapping his neck, if it weren't for Murphy holding her back. While they started their usual shouting match, I pulled my scroll out, put in my earbuds, and played my favorite playlist to fall asleep to.

/-/ Caput Mortem /-/

I stepped off of the ramp as the cargo was being loaded into the base from the ship. The loss of my shotgun was a slight annoyance, but it could be replaced, just like any other piece of equipment. I considered throwing away the severed halves to be melted down but thought better of it. I decided to hold onto them, placing them on a shelf in my quarters as a reminder of what happened. It would forever remind me not to underestimate the power of Beacon's Huntsmen, as well as to fight at my full potential from now on. Toying with them -especially the leader- was a severe mistake that I cannot repeat. Still, though, it was a lesson to be learned, which I much appreciate and respect.

I heard a knock on my door, which was of course already open. I turned to see who it was, and of course, Mabel stood in the doorway to greet me. "Nice to see something getting done around here for once, gotta say." She said with her usual Cheshire smile. "Aw, but what happened to your toy there?"

"We ran into more resistance than we expected." I told her, "A contingent of students from Beacon academy ambushed us all. Regrettably, I miscalculated their ability, but dispatched them nonetheless."

"Ugh, do you, like, rifle through the dictionary for the biggest words you can find to describe simple crap?" She said, leaning over my desk. "Mind repeating that in _English?"_

I sighed, searching for smaller words to use, "We had to fight some students that attacked us by surprise, and I got rid of them. Other than that, everything was... Fine."

"Got rid of them? You mean you _killed them_ , right?" I remained silent. She groaned, "Seriously, man? Can't you kill off a little ragtag team of snot-nosed twerps? Don't tell me you're going soft on me."

"I assure you, I'm anything but." I said with mild irritation, "They are no threat to us though. If they act against us again, I will be much less merciful."

"Now _that's_ what I like to hear." She smiled, shutting my door. She went back over to me, placing her hand on my chest. "Now, why don't we celebrate this little win by getting out of these stuffy uniforms and having some fun, Hm~?"

"I'm not interested." I walked around her, opening the door back up and ushering her out. "I have more important things to be doing."

She sighed, " _Fine_ , Commander No-Fun. But my offer's still on the table." She walked away with a purposeful sway in her hips, and I shut the door, lying down in my cot. I had much to consider, closing my eyes for a short rest.

 **/-/**

 ***A Study in Scarlet was Sherlock Holmes first appearance, hence the name for the detective.**


	17. Chapter 17- Meetings

/-/ Murphy /-/

 _Mugger._ A name that had been evading me for nearly a week and a half now. Every search I did, every page I visited, and every list or chart I scanned, I couldn't find out anything about a boat named Mugger. Tonight though, I thought I finally had a lead. I sat alone in the library's computer section, reading the files with tired eyes at the late hours of the night.

An Atlesian cargo carrier vessel, The S.S. Mugger Siren. It was reported destroyed by official Atlesian records about two years ago, and thanks to the Freedom of People's Information act, I also found out that the ship was manufactured in the Atlas itself, and stationed for service in Atlas as well. From what I could piece together, the White Fang hijacked the ship while it was making a cargo delivery, and maybe the Atlesian government either was too embarrassed or just made an outright mistake in their files, registering it as sunken.

I scratched down the records I could find on the notepad I had with me, writing it down as neatly as I could with my own custom categorization method. Alphabetical, and split up into two categories: School and Personal Interests, the latter being a lot emptier. I put it under M in my Personal Interests category, right between Living Dust (it's a bit of a long story, lots of internet rumors and speculations) and Mummies. Once I had all the info the glorious internet would bestow upon me, I shut off the computer, grabbed my notebook, and headed off for the door.

My Scroll buzzed, and I stopped to open it up and check it. It had no header, just the message itself.

 _You're looking into the White Fang. I want to help you. Downtown Vale, 188 W. Lancaster Avenue. 10:30 PM Tuesday. Come alone and unarmed or I'm gone._

 _-L_

I immediately looked around the library after reading that, but couldn't see anybody with how dark it was, given that it was around midnight at the time. I frowned, narrowing my eyes at my Scroll before shutting and pocketing it. I walked quickly out of the Library after that, glancing over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't being tailed. I made it all the way to the dorm room, hurriedly unlocking it and getting inside.

I rubbed my eyes, walking over to the desk and tossing my Scroll onto it, slumping down in my chair. I don't know who messaged me or why they were interested in what I was doing, but one thing was certain. I would be a real idiot to miss out on a chance to get help with exposing the White Fang hideout. The progress I was making was slow and grueling, all that info I had dug up just earlier had taken me a week or so to find.

Still, this was far too good to be true and could have easily been a trap. The fact they wanted to meet me alone was especially worrying, I at least wanted to have one other person with me for backup or something in case things turned out bad. If I was going to do this, I wouldn't be able to tell anybody, though. They'd all almost certainly insist on tagging along, which would blow the meeting. I had no choice in the matter, all things considered. For now, though, it was really late and I just wanted to sleep. I didn't even bother dragging myself into bed, simply putting my head down on the desk and drifting off there.

/-/ Arin /-/

 _Arin Rosewood,_

 _I understand you and your team were involved in a quite scary situation three days ago involving the White Fang. I would like very much for you to please come and visit me in my office this afternoon, I would greatly appreciate a chance to talk with you about what happened that night._

 _-Mr. Amaranth_

Ah, crap. The message popped up on my Scroll in the middle of another one of Port's long-ass stories about how he castrated a Beringel with a letter opener or something, I was honestly only half paying attention. I was too busy making stupid doodles and drawing dicks in the margins of my notebook paper to listen to whatever it was he was talking about.

After the bell rang, I grabbed my stuff and headed out the door. I was sorta conflicted about seeing Amaranth or not. On one hand, he was a stupid hippie-dippie guidance counselor that just wanted to pull some psychoanalytical b.s. on me. But, I also had literally nothing better going on that day. I'd have headed to the dorm to hang out with Murph, but I was pretty sure he was scoring with some redhead he was hitting on last period, and I didn't feel like being anywhere in the splash zone that day. Fuckin' gross.

I got another buzz on my scroll, again from Amaranth.

 _Arin Rosewood,_

 _I have recently been informed of your more... lax personality style. To ensure that you do not intend on skipping our meeting, I have granted your team's leader permission to distribute appropriate punishment for any attempts at 'playing hooky'. I do not wish to come across as forceful, but I believe that talking to me about what happened will be very much helpful and healthy for you and your team. I look forward to your visit._

 _-Mr. Amaranth_

Well, if that wasn't the fuckin' nail in the coffin. I groaned, annoyed, and weighed my options. If I _didn't_ go, Liam had permission to probably kick the shit out of me, or just get his psycho sister to do it instead. But there was almost nothing I'd hate more than having to see Amaranth for more than an hour, otherwise, I'd have an aneurysm or something. With no other options left, I started heading for Amaranth's office. I supposed the least I could do was grace him with my amazing presence, even if I didn't like the guy.

/-/

I stepped right up to the door, stopping in front of it and crossing my arms. _Guidance Counselor - Mr. Amaranth_ was engraved in a gold frame right on the door, and I could literally smell the incense from outside through the door. Damn weirdo, that guy. He was so happy and smiley all the time, I could only assume he was constantly high out of his fucking mind all the time. Either way, I took a deep breath, knocking a few times on the door.

I heard him through the door. "Ah, that must be Mr. Rosewood. Please, come on in." He said in his usual, chipper yet irritating voice, which made me wonder who he was even talking to. I walked right in, shutting the door behind me and seeing probably the worst sight I could've imagined. Emma fucking Brunswick sat down in a wooden chair in front of Amaranth's desk. And there was a vacant chair right next to her.

This was gonna be a long day.


	18. Chapter 18- Allies

/-/ Emma /-/

Arin sat sunken down in his seat, arms crossed and pouting like a child. Amaranth's office smelled so nice that if you closed your eyes, you could swear you were in a serene, quiet rose garden in the springtime. When you opened your eyes again though, you'd see the carpet that looked like it was straight from the 80's, a shelf covered in stress toys and other 'comfort objects' like some colorful rocks or something, and a blonde man in a pink button-up shirt, smiling at you with closed eyes (And that's not even mentioning the motivational posters with the cats and stuff). It was nice enough, but now wasn't particularly the time for relaxing, Amaranth still questioning us about the White Fang encounter from a few nights ago.

"So," Amaranth said, looking over at me, "Why don't you go ahead and tell me everything that you can remember from that night, hm?" I told him just about everything I knew, from Arin running in, to us running from Caput. The Dust cargo, the number of them I saw, and the talk with the cops afterward. "Hm," He hummed, "Sounds like a very difficult experience."

I shrugged, "I'm used to this stuff."

"I understand that." He said, nodding. "I've read through you and your team's files, and I'm very impressed, I must say. You and your brother had a very difficult upbringing, yet here you are, against all odds." He looked over to Arin, "As for you, I must say you're quite interesting as well. I understand Liam and Emma's lack of difficulty with the situation, but you're a very different story. You grew up in Vaccuo, living with a nomadic group of Faunus villagers. I must ask, how did you handle the situation so elegantly when you have _less_ combat experience then Liam or Emma?"

He shrugged, "Natural talent, I guess. I always was pretty damn good-"

"Ah ah," Amaranth raised his finger, "Language, please."

I snickered as Arin gave him a sour look. " _Fine._ I was always pretty good at what I do, I learned everything I know from my dad." He sighed, "But don't think I have any less experience than her. I've had to fight for _everything_ in my life; my home, my food, my family, everything!"

Amaranth raised his arms defensively, "I meant no disrespect, of course. Please allow me to ask though, why exactly _did_ you act the way you did, rushing into the attack like your partner said you did?"

I was waiting for him to ask that, honestly. I still was really annoyed by it, and I wasn't going to forgive Arin so easily for nearly getting us all killed. "Because." Arin said simply, "I wanted to go in and tear them up, so I did."

That left me stunned, forcing me to process for a few moments what he had just said. "What?!" I snapped at him, "You're fucking serious?!"

"Language!" Amaranth said, but I didn't pay attention to him.

"Well we're all alive, aren't we?!" He snapped back, locking eyes with me, "You don't see Murphy constantly bitching and moaning at me about it, and he and I caught way worse of it than you did!"

"Settle down!" Amaranth commanded, raising his voice for the first time that I've ever heard. He put his hand on his chest, taking a deep breath in and out while Arin and I watched him. " _Clearly_ , there's some hostility here that needs to be taken care of." He reached under his desk, grabbing a notepad and a pen and writing something down. "Now, I'm afraid I don't quite have the time today to help you two with this, but here," He handed me the paper, which had _'Tuesday, 12 noon'_ written on it. "Come back here at this time and we can all have a nice sit-down and talk things out, hm?" He smiled reassuringly at us.

Arin rolled his eyes, "Yeah, whatever." He stood up, "We done here?"

Amaranth frowned and nodded. I could tell that he knew Arin didn't intend on coming back, and I have to say, I didn't either. "Yes, that's all for now. Be sure to come back, though."

Arin didn't say anything else, simply turning on his heel and walking right out the door. I groaned in frustration, walking after him. I wasn't in the mood for his bullcrap at the time, instead deciding to head out for a walk off-campus.

/-/ ? /-/

Phoebes shook his head, looking over at me as I took my usual spot in our room at the computer, diligently working as usual while the others did absolutely nothing with their time. Pathetic. I was the only one who did anything that was worth anything around the place. Selfish, that's what they are. Selfish.

"You know," Phoebes said, cracking open a soda bottle, "You're probably gonna scare the guy away from you, sending him spooky, vague messages like that. Why not just try and talk to him like a human being for once?"

Foolish. "We're dealing with a radical anti-human terrorist cell with numerous underground connections and eyes everywhere." I gave him a sharp look, "'Talking like a human' is out of the equation here."

He shrugged, "Whatever man, just try not to freak out the only friend you've got."

"Trust me," I said, looking back over at the computer screen, "The only _friends_ I need are a good computer," I reached into my mini-fridge, -which I keep right by my desk- grabbing an energy drink. "And these things." I don't drink them for pleasure; in fact, I think the things taste vile, like petrol. However, they did keep me awake. Awake means more working, and more working means collapsing the fascist cults and secret societies. I was truly, _truly_ the only one doing anything worthwhile.

Pathetic.

 **/-/**


	19. Chapter 19- More Questions

/-/ Murphy /-/

Downtown Vale, 188 W. Lancaster Avenue. 10:25 PM, Tuesday. I stood in the alleyway, unarmed and alone like the message specified. My Scroll rested in my pocket, already prepared to send my weapon locker to my coordinates if I really was walking into a trap. Last time we went out with our weapons, we got chewed by Glynda Goodwitch for "irresponsible behavior".

I didn't tell the others I would be there, just that I was heading out for a walk. I waited in an alleyway between a barbershop and a dollar store as cars and people moved past, tempted to get out my earbuds to listen to my favorite band's new album. I had to be ready for if my mysterious informant was going to approach me, I couldn't quite afford the distraction.

Five minutes later, exactly when 10:30 rolled around, I felt my Scroll buzz in my pocket. I opened it up, seeing a new message. It was from L again but from a different messaging address. They must not have wanted me tracing them if I could somehow do that.

 _I see you. Move somewhere less conspicuous. There's a cafe on the other side of the street with outdoor seating, sit down at one of the tables. I'll be there in exactly two minutes and thirty seconds._

 _-L_

I looked around to see if I could spot anybody looking at me, but nobody was. I crossed the street, seating myself in one of the outdoor tables as requested. Either I was putting myself an open spot to get shot in the head, or they'd come meet me as they said. Either way, I kept my Scroll ready to drop Law right when I'd need it.

I didn't count two minutes and thirty seconds, but not too long after I sat down, someone approached the table. He wore a closed black jacket and a pair of round, orange-tinted glasses. He wore a filthy black baseball cap with a bandana covering his nose and mouth, the only skin I could see on his face was whiter than I've probably ever seen. He looked like some kind of new-age vampire or something, complete with the aversion to sunlight.

He sat down with me, looking around. "Murphy." He said, reaching into his coat and pulling out a manila envelope, tossing it on the table in front of me. "I'm glad you came here."

I raised my eyebrows at the envelope, and then to him, "Alright, who are you? Why do you know my name?"

"That's not really important, is it?" He said, "But I guess it'll help you trust me. I can't give you my name, someone might be listening. Just call me L.A. - or just L."

"Alright... L." I said, "You didn't answer how you know my name though."

"Easy. I dug through the school's dossier on you and found out everything I could about you before our meeting. Your name's Murphy James Verner, you were raised in Sanctum by your mothers Kim and Cara Verner, and you moved here to Vale when you were eight years old. You were in a garage band called Ursa Major, and you made it on the news for stopping a robbery before you came to Beacon."

I watched him, wide-eyed as he basically gave me my entire life's story. I was upset by a couple of things at the same time; that not only did he know all of this about me, but that in turn, I had absolutely nothing on him. I couldn't even recognize his initials among the students that I knew. With nothing to say, I picked up the envelope and inspected it.

He leaned back in the chair. "Don't open that here. It's got everything you've been looking for, plus some extra. Wait until you can be sure nobody else will see, don't even show it to your teammates. You never know who you can trust."

"Why do we have to do it like this?" I asked him, setting the envelope back down, "I can trust my team, why does it all have to be so secretive?"

"You never know who's watching, or listening." He glanced past me, his eyes widening suddenly. "Get down!" He grabbed me by my jacket, throwing himself and me out of our chairs as a _CRACK_ rang out, loud enough to where even I could hear it and hitting where the envelope would have been on the table if I hadn't knocked it down on my way to the ground.

I quickly got back up to my feet, seeing a shining glimmer on one of the rooftops and a figure ducking away. I played enough video games to recognize a sniper when I saw one. I looked back to L, but he was already gone, disappeared into the fleeing crowd. "Dang it!" I pulled out my Scroll, punching in a security code. Not fifteen seconds later, a rocket-propelled capsule flew toward the ground, slowing it down with a pair of small jets on the bottom for a less destructive landing in the street. I ran over to the locker, swinging it open and grabbing Law and my bolt quiver, running after where the shot came from.

I went up the fire escape of the building they were at, reaching the rooftop where I found no person or trail, but seeing a sniper rifle lying down on the rooftop. I ran to the back end of the rooftop but saw nothing and no one still. I sighed, putting away Law and going back to the rifle to inspect it.

The barrel was still warm from the gunshot, and a bullet casing jumped out when I pulled the bolt out. I picked it up, seeing on the back end that it was a 7.62×63mm bullet. I didn't know what that meant, but I assumed it was strong. I pulled out my Scroll to take a picture when suddenly everything went blurry, and a pain suddenly hit the back of my head as I fell to the floor.

I rolled over onto my back, seeing a slim frame in a black and white outfit with some kind of rod or baton; it was still hard to distinguish with my hazy vision. They swung it down at me and I blocked it with my forearm, which hurt something fierce but it was better than taking another in the head. I kicked the attacker in the knee, making them stumble back. My vision started coming back to me as I got back up, brandishing my guitar.

It was a girl in a white fang uniform holding a silver, expandable baton in her hand. From what I could see under her hood and mask, she had dark skin and a beauty mark on the right side of her mouth. She was maybe 5'6" or so if I had to guess from my eyes alone. If it hadn't been for the uniform and the implications, she would have been really pretty, I think, though half her face was still impossible to see.

She swung the baton at me, hitting me in the thigh. Whatever it was about that thing, it _hurt_ to get hit by it, and that hit in the leg made me stagger and limp. I swung my axe horizontally at her, which she moved back away from while deflecting the blade with the stick. I pulled back, deciding to finally pop my semblance with a snap of my fingers in front of her face.

I had the ability to amplify sound to levels at least capable of rupturing eardrums, and at most moving physical objects. By snapping my fingers while using my semblance, the sound was comparable to a shotgun blast right by her head. She stepped back, roughly clasping her hands over her ears while I pushed her against the wall of the connected next door building with the neck of Law.

I kept her pinned there, waiting a second until I figured her ears stopped ringing. "Who are you? Why were you sent after me?!" I demanded, keeping the weapon shoved against her body. She spat in my face, making me press harder. "Tell me!"

The girl clenched her teeth, "I'm the girl sent to kill you!" She growled, raising her knee and hitting me straight in the groin. I eased up greatly at that, groaning in pain as I recoiled from the hit in the hard candies. She pushed me back, whipping around behind me and putting her baton around my throat, pulling hard and flinging me over her back and onto the concrete.

I rolled over slowly, seeing her pick the rifle back up and chamber another round into it. "I'm sorry." She said, leveling the gun at my forehead. "I'm just doing my-" She suddenly was flung across the rooftop, rolling over the edge and falling off as a huge bolt of electricity hit her in the side out of nowhere. I immediately ran over where she fell off the roof to check on her, but I couldn't see her when I got there.

I stood up, holding onto my leg and looking over where the zap came from. L stood on a neighboring rooftop several meters away with some kind of high-tech looking cannon in his hands, looking back at me. He pulled out his scroll, and suddenly mine buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out to read it.

 _You're welcome._

I looked back up from the message but L was already gone, again. I sighed, rubbing my sore thigh and looking around. Cops were going to be coming soon, and I was weighing my options for if I should stay and talk to them. Either way, I still had the envelope in my jacket, and now I knew I had an ally; and also an enemy. She _was_ cute though, if only she weren't so crazy. I went back to the fire escape, deciding to just leave and get back to everybody. They should have been missing me by now.

 **/-/**

 **That's a volume wrapped up. Vol. 2 coming whenever I decide I feel like it.**


	20. Chapter 20- Year 2

/-/ ? /-/

"Status report." Commander Mortem had his hands behind his back, looking sternly down at me as I sat up in bed in the clinic of our hideout. I looked up at him, attempting to hide the mixture of shame and fear that I was feeling with all that happened. I'd been beaten by Murphy Verner and a surprise friend of his when I was sent to kill him, and now I was left with aching muscles and apparently some nerve damage from the lightning cannon I was hit by. Damn, I even found myself still twitching sometimes.

I swallowed, "Mission was unsuccessful. Due to an unforeseen obstacle, I was unable to complete my task."

I couldn't see the commander's face under his mask, but he was clearly disappointed in me. He shook his head, taking some paces to his left to look through the window, which had an overview of other White Fang members who were all working together like an ant colony. I tensed up when I heard him exhale, and then he looked back over his shoulder at me again.

"I expected better from you." He said in a slow, methodical voice. "I didn't take you under my command so I could have another loser, Mauve." I broke line of sight, turning my gaze away so I didn't have to see him.

"Look at me." He commanded, and I shivered before complying. He tilted his head slightly, "You showed great promise during the initiation, as well as a true passion for our goals." He stepped closer toward me, making me feel smaller than I've ever felt only partly because of his sheer height. "I accepted you into my ranks, despite the protests of my peers. They thought you were just another child, but I saw more than that, and I even gave them my word you would excel among us. Tell me," He leaned in, but only very slightly, "Am I a liar?"

I shook like his very presence was strangling me. "N-No, sir-"

"Then don't make me look like one." He said in a calm voice, yet it was as startling as if he had suddenly shouted at me. He stepped away from my bed, giving me one last stare which struck me like icy daggers before turning and walking out the door. Only when he was totally gone did I find the strength to breathe again, gasping once he shut the door and walked off.

I grit my teeth, taking maybe a full minute to breathe to calm myself down. I felt like an idiot, being beaten so easily by that student, and whoever the other guy was. I looked down at the bandages and wires attached to me, thinking about how I was going to return the favor once I was ready for duty again in a few days.

God as my witness, Murphy Verner was going to die, and I was going to be the one to pull the trigger.

/-/ Liam, 3 months later /-/

"So this L guy," Arin said, arms crossed as he leaned dangerously far back in his desk in Peach's class. "He gives you this folder of everything we've ever wanted, tells you your life's story, and then brings the thunder on some psycho chick trying to put a hole in your head?"

"Well, that's the short version, anyway." Murphy nodded, the only one among us paying attention to the professor. "He also mentioned I can't let any of you see it, but he didn't say anything about talking about it, so there you go."

"Where's the folder now?" I asked, having long since stopped paying attention to Peach's long, _long_ lecture on how bees were the most important insects in nature or something. She sometimes mistook this class for philosophy, but I never minded.

"Can't tell you." Murphy shrugged, "I can't know if that guy can hear me or something. I tell ya, I've had the webcam on my Scroll taped over since I met the guy. He creeps me out, so I'm not a hundred percent sure about going back on the deal I made with him. That's more or less why I haven't said anything yet. He could DOXX me or something, I dunno."

"Post your nudes on Facebook?" Arin suggested.

"Or leak your Neopets password?" I added, "A fate worse than death."

"Hey." Emma leaned over, scowling at all of us, "Can you guys shut the hell up? I'm trying to get an education here, the second year's just started and I want to keep up with my notes since _someone_ ," She narrowed her eyes at Arin, "Kept _thieving_ mine last year."

"Oh, please." Arin sneered at her, "You'd be first in line to screenshot his whole feed if Murph had pics leak. Guy's a fuckin' Adonis, and you're thirstier than a beached whale."

"Um," Murph interrupted as Emma's ears lit red like Christmas lights, "Just for the record, I've never taken naked pictures of myself. I had a Neopets account, but I forgot the password to it."

"Haven't we all?" I nodded as the bell rang, and we all got up and left. We were taking more classes together as a team, which Amaranth suggested to us for bonding stuff or something, so we were all together for three out of seven classes every day now, instead of the one we had last year, and there were more classes with at least two or more of us in it

Arin got a disgusted look on his face as we all went down the hall, something like when a toddler sucks on a lemon, or when you see someone wearing Crocs outside in public. "Can you believe this?" He said, pointing at a flyer for the upcoming school dance. "Who's actually gonna go for this dumbass, hoity-toity crap?"

"For your information," Emma said, "Some girls _like_ that 'hoity-toity crap'. Maybe girls would be interested in you if you understood the first thing about them."

"She's not wrong, you know." Murphy said, patting his shorter friend on the back, "You gotta treat a lady like a princess every now and then."

Arin crossed his arms, grumbling something as I joined in on the conversation. "You taking anyone, Murph?"

He shook his head, "Nah, 'fraid not. Doesn't mean I don't plan on going, though. It sounds like fun."

"Count me out," Arin said. "It's an absolute sham. I'm not going to some big room to see people walk in circles in fancy outfits so they can play hide the banana when they get back to their dorms."

"Either way," I shrugged, "It's just some social thing, I don't think it's worth really worrying about. _I'm_ more interested in the missions we'll be getting afterward. I've been waiting for a chance for us to all get out and do some real Huntsman stuff. Well, other than the run-in with the White Fang, anyway."

"Amen," Arin said, being first to walk into Glynda's classroom, where students were getting ready for weekly sparring matches.

 **/-/**


End file.
